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Polymers
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Advances in Functional Polymer Foams
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Advances in Functional Polymer Foams

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 June 2025 | Viewed by 887

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ruiyan Zhang

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Guest Editor
Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic Materials, School of Materials and New Energy, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China
Interests: polymer processing and engineering
Prof. Dr. Patrick Lee

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Multifunctional Composites Manufacturing Laboratory (MCML), Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, 5 King’s College Road, Toronto, ON M5S 3G8, Canada
Interests: foams; multiphase foam materials; lightweight and smart polymeric materials; hybrid polymer materials and foams; micro-/nanolayer coextrusion; modelling of polymeric foams; super high R-value foams; conductive and functional foams; sound insulation foams
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Functional polymeric foams play an important role in energy management, e.g., thermal insulation, electrical conductivity, EMI shielding performance, etc. Unlike solvent-derived synthesized aerogel foams, polymeric foams fabricated from eco-friendly supercritical foaming agents have gained attention in both academia and industry. The current and future applications of polymer foams and their superior performances in such structural and functional foams are the foci of this Special Issue. Both theoretical and experimental studies can be submitted if they present a sufficiently significant scientific innovation.

Dr. Ruiyan Zhang
Prof. Dr. Patrick Lee
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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

  • polymer foam
  • function
  • processing

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

13 pages, 13078 KiB  
Article
Investigation of the Foaming Morphology of Polypropylene Molded via Microcellular Injection Assisted by Water Vapor and Gas Counter Pressure
by Shia-Chung Chen, Chao-Yuan Gan, Yan-Jun Liu and Ching-Te Feng
Polymers 2025, 17(5), 611; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym17050611 - 25 Feb 2025
Viewed by 517
Abstract
The microcellular injection molding (MuCell®) process, which uses supercritical fluid (SCF) as a foaming agent, is considered an important green molding solution to reduce product weight, molding energy, and cycle time and to improve the foam quality. However, maximizing the foaming [...] Read more.
The microcellular injection molding (MuCell®) process, which uses supercritical fluid (SCF) as a foaming agent, is considered an important green molding solution to reduce product weight, molding energy, and cycle time and to improve the foam quality. However, maximizing the foaming density while keeping size uniformity in the foaming cell requires further attention. In this study, H2O and the SCF N2 were employed as cofoaming agents in the MuCell® process of polypropylene (PP). Owing to the different critical points of N2 and H2O, bubble nucleation was expected to occur in interactive ways. Various process parameters were investigated, including the SCF N2 content, the moisture content adsorbed within the resin under targeted PP weight reductions of 30% and 40%, the melt and mold temperature conditions, and the gas counter pressure. The resulting foaming morphology was examined to evaluate the foam quality in terms of the foaming density and bubble size distribution. The bubble coalescence, particularly in the skin layer, was examined, and the associated gas permeability flow rate was measured. The results indicated that H2O-assisted foaming led to bubble coalescence and allowed for gas penetration in the direction of the part thickness direction, resulting in an overall increase in foaming density, particularly in the skin layer. Under high SCF N2 and H2O contents, the solid skin layer disappeared, regulating the gas permeability from one surface side to the other. Under the optimized process parameters, the gas permeability flow rate in the filter-like foaming PP material reached 300–450 mL/min. The application of gas counter pressure also helped increase the foam density and bubble coalescence, enhancing the gas permeability in the PP material to about 500 mL/min. These results demonstrate the potential application of microcellular injection molding using water as a cofoaming agent in moisture-release devices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Functional Polymer Foams)
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