Advanced Polymer Foam: Structural Control and Material Performance

Dear Colleagues,

Advanced polymer foams are lightweight porous materials with tailorable mechanical, thermal, acoustic and functional properties, making them indispensable in aerospace, automotive engineering, energy conservation, environmental remediation and biomedical engineering. As a frontier interdisciplinary field covering polymer chemistry, material processing and structural engineering, the research and innovation of advanced polymer foams hold great scientific significance and application value.

This Special Issue aims to showcase the latest advancements in the design, fabrication, and characterization of polymer foams with tailored structures. The focus is on understanding how microscale morphology—such as pore size, cellular structure, and pore/surface functionality—affects the macroscopic performance of foam materials, including mechanical strength, thermal insulation, acoustic damping, and energy absorption. Contributions may cover innovative foam preparation techniques, nanocomposite reinforcements, the modeling and simulation of foam structures, and applications in the aerospace, automotive, packaging, and biomedical fields. By bringing together experimental and theoretical studies, this issue seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state and future directions in nanostructure-controlled polymer foams.

We welcome original research articles, comprehensive reviews, and short communications that contribute to advancing this dynamic and rapidly evolving field.

We look forward to receiving your valuable contributions.

Dr. Huawen Liu
Dr. Qionghai Chen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the Special Issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized 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.