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Polymeric Foams III

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 2573

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Poly2 Group, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Technical University of Catalonia (UPC BarcelonaTech), ESEIAAT, C/Colom 11, 08222 Terrassa, Spain
Interests: polymers; composites; foams; nanocomposites
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Poly2 Group, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Technical University of Catalonia (UPC BarcelonaTech), ESEIAAT, C/Colom 11, 08222 Terrassa, Spain
Interests: additives; aerogels; composites; conductivity; extrusion; films; foaming; foams; foils; fracture; graphene; ignifugation; membranes; molding; nanocomposites; nanoparticles; oxides; permeability; polyfunctional materials; polymers; processing; properties; resistance; silicates; structure; supercritical fluid
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Polymeric foams have been gaining interest in emerging sectors that demand increasingly more efficient materials to fulfill complex technical requirements, including enhanced specific and functional properties as well as reduced energy consumption. Researchers have demonstrated in recent years the great versatility of polymer-based foams, both in terms of their developed cellular structures and microstructures as well as their final performances. In this sense, control of the microstructures and final properties is highly influenced by the constituent components, with the dispersion of functional (nano)particles throughout a polymer matrix emerging as a trending strategy. New foaming methods and technologies have also been developed in recent years, allowing the creation of novel foams with micro-, submicro-, or even nanocellular structures, extending their already vast array of applications and opening brand new possibilities, such as in tissue engineering, catalysis, or in high-temperature as well as high-performance insulating applications.

This Special Issue is the continuation of two published Special Issues, entitled “Polymeric Foams” and “Polymeric Foams II”, which, respectively, contain a total of 23 (plus an editorial letter) and 14 articles, all dealing with relevant aspects of the most recent research on polymer-based foams, including those that are thermoset-, thermoplastic-, and even elastomeric-based, focusing on their designs, compositions (including the development of fully biodegradable foams or the addition of functional (nano)particles), processing and fabrication (including different processing methods, such as the use of supercritical carbon dioxide or expanded bead technologies), microstructures (such as the development of microcellular foams), mechanical and functional properties, applications, service behaviors, or recycling and reuse. The large amount of interest, corroborated by the high number of publications in the first two Special Issues (Polymeric Foams and Polymeric Foams II), is a testament to the great deal of interest in these materials and fully justifies the expansion to a third Special Issue on this topic.

Manuscripts related to the following topics are of interest for this Special Issue:

  • Thermoplastic-, thermoset-, and elastomeric-based foams;
  • Syntactic foams;
  • Biopolymer-based and biodegradable polymer foams;
  • High-temperature and high-performance polymer foams;
  • Composite and nanocomposite foams;
  • Microcellular, submicrocellular, and nanocellular foams;
  • Closed-cell, open-cell, and interconnected-cell foams;
  • Unimodal and multimodal foams;
  • Novel foaming methods and technologies;
  • Polymer foams for 3D printing;
  • Flame-retardant foams;
  • Thermally and electrically conductive polymer foams;
  • Polymer foams with enhanced thermal insulation;
  • Polymer foams with enhanced specific mechanical properties;
  • Modeling of polymeric foams;
  • Recycling and reuse of polymer foams;
  • New applications of foams, including in electronics, batteries, fuel cells, catalysis, separation and filtration, gas absorption, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, electrostatic discharge (ESD), electrostatic painting, tissue engineering, sandwich-like materials, etc.

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

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 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.

Keywords

  • polymeric foams
  • cellular composites
  • microcellular foams
  • nanocomposite foams
  • functional foams
  • new applications of foams

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

23 pages, 8415 KiB  
Review
Recent Trends in Polymeric Foams and Porous Structures for Electromagnetic Interference Shielding Applications
by Marcelo Antunes
Polymers 2024, 16(2), 195; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym16020195 - 9 Jan 2024
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2167
Abstract
Polymer-based (nano)composite foams containing conductive (nano)fillers limit electromagnetic interference (EMI) pollution, and have been shown to act as good shielding materials in electronic devices. However, due to their high (micro)structural complexity, there is still a great deal to learn about the shielding mechanisms [...] Read more.
Polymer-based (nano)composite foams containing conductive (nano)fillers limit electromagnetic interference (EMI) pollution, and have been shown to act as good shielding materials in electronic devices. However, due to their high (micro)structural complexity, there is still a great deal to learn about the shielding mechanisms in these materials; understanding this is necessary to study the relationship between the properties of the microstructure and the porous structure, especially their EMI shielding efficiency (EMI SE). Targeting and controlling the electrical conductivity through a controlled distribution of conductive nanofillers are two of the main objectives when combining foaming with the addition of nanofillers; to achieve this, both single or combined nanofillers (nanohybrids) are used (as there is a direct relationship between electrical conductivity and EMI SE), as are the main shielding mechanisms working on the foams (which are expected to be absorption-dominated). The present review considers the most significant developments over the last three years concerning polymer-based foams containing conductive nanofillers, especially carbon-based nanofillers, as well as other porous structures created using new technologies such as 3D printing for EMI shielding applications. It starts by detailing the microcellular foaming strategy, which develops polymer foams with enhanced EMI shielding, and it particularly focuses on technologies using supercritical CO2 (sCO2). It also notes the use of polymer foams as templates to prepare carbon foams with high EMI shielding performances for high temperature applications, as well as a recent strategy which combines different functional (nano)fillers to create nanohybrids. This review also explains the control and selective distribution of the nanofillers, which favor an effective conductive network formation, which thus promotes the enhancement of the EMI SE. The recent use of computational approaches to tailor the EMI shielding properties are given, as are new possibilities for creating components with varied porous structures using the abovementioned materials and 3D printing. Finally, future perspectives are discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Polymeric Foams III)
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