Synthesis Strategies and Applications of Metallic Foams and Hollow Structured Materials

Abstract

The porous materials or foams are becoming ubiquitous in various research fields as they find applications in several important modern devices. The porous nano structures may be considered as a generalised name of foams which are generated from both metallic and non-metallic components. Present chapter however discussed primarily on the metallic foams. After a brief account of the history of the generation of metallic foams, the synthesis procedures have been discussed, the chapter has been organised by describing various synthesis procedures of metallic foams, which leads to the variation in their properties. Since porous nano structure materials have wide varieties of applications, only some of the important application are presented in the chapter. In addition to the nano porous foams, the metallic foam with macro porous structures have widespread large scale commercial applications, which has been discussed in brief. Some of the important applications of porous nano structures materials in alternate energy technology, sensors and biosensors and bio-regenarative medicines are included in the present chapter. Apart from the metallic foams, non-metallic foams are also very important and associated its signature with various scientific and technological applications; however, the detailed discussion on the non-metallic foams are made out of the scope of the present chapter with only a small discussion on the graphene foams, which has accrued an important place in various scientific inventions, has been mentioned towards the end of the chapter.KeywordsPorous structureMetal foamHollow structurePorous noble metal nanostructures (PNMNs)Transition metal chalcogenidesHard templateSoft templateSelf-templateElectrodepositionGas templateKirkindall effectLi ion batterySupercapacitorFuel cellWater splittingSensorsCommercial applicationsRegenerative medicines