Functional Foams

Dear Colleagues,

Advances in nanotechnology have boosted the development of more efficient materials, with emerging sectors (electronics, energy, aerospace, etc.) demanding novel materials to fulfil the complex technical requirements of their products. This is the case of the so-called “functional foams”, which rationally display several specific properties, not only mechanical, but also electrical, thermal, chemical, etc., through complex compositions and structures, in which a gaseous phase is combined with rigid ones, mainly based on nanoparticles, dispersed throughout the matrix.

In the particular case of polymer foams, in the last few years there has been an important impulse in the development of “nanocomposite foams” or “cellular nanocomposites”, extending the concept of nanocomposite to the field of cellular materials. This, alongside the advances in foaming techniques, which have allowed generating new foams with micro, sub-micro and even nanocellular structures, has extended the applications of more traditional foams in terms of weight reduction, damping, thermal and/or acoustic insulation, to novel possibilities, such as electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding.

This Special Issue considers recent research on novel polymer-based foams in all their aspects: design, composition, fabrication, microstructure, characterization and analysis, application and service behaviour, recycling, etc. Special importance will be given to foams containing carbon nanoparticles, like graphene nanoplatelets, carbon nanotubes, carbon nanofibers, or other kind of nanoparticles that contribute to develop functional properties in foams.

Manuscripts related to the following topics will be considered for this Special Issue:

-  Thermoplastic and thermosetting polymer foams.
-  Biopolymer foams.
-  Nanocomposite foams.
-  Microcellular, sub-microcellular and nanocellular foams.
-  Close-cell, open-cell and interconnected-cell foams.
-  Unimodal and multimodal foams.
-  Chemical and physical foaming methods.
-  Recycling of foams.
-  Biodegradable foams.
-  Flame retardant foams.
-  Thermally and electrically conductive polymer foams.
-  New applications of foams, including electronics, batteries, fuel cells, catalysis, separation and filtration, EMI shielding, electrostatic dissipation (ESD), electrostatic painting, tissue engineering, etc.

Prof. Dr. José Ignacio Velasco
Dr. Marcelo Antunes
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Functional foams

• Nanocomposite foams

• Conductive foams

• Cellular composites