Multifunctional Foams Research Articles

Multifunctional Superelastic Foam-Like Boron Nitride Nanotubular Cellular-Network Architectures.

Construction of cellular architectures has been expected to enhance materials' mechanical tolerance and to stimulate and broaden their efficient utilizations in many potential fields. However, hitherto, there have been rather scarce developments in boron nitride (BN)-type cellular architectures because of well-known difficulties in the syntheses of BN-based structures. Herein, cellular-network multifunctional foams made of interconnective nanotubular hexagonal BN (h-BN) architectures are developed using carbothermal reduction-assisted in situ chemical vapor deposition conversion from N-doped tubular graphitic cellular foams. These ultralight, chemically inert, thermally stable, and robust-integrity (supporting about 25,000 times of their own weight) three-dimensional-BN foams exhibit a 98.5% porosity, remarkable shape recovery (even after cycling compressions with 90% deformations), excellent resistance to water intrusion, thermal diffusion stability, and high strength and stiffness. They remarkably reduce the coefficient of thermal expansion and dielectric constant of polymeric poly(methyl methacrylate) composites, greatly contribute to their thermal conductivity improvement, and effectively limit polymeric composite softening at elevated temperatures. The foams also demonstrate high-capacity adsorption-separation and removal ability for a wide range of oils and organic chemicals in oil/water systems and reliable recovery under their cycling usage as organic adsorbers. These created multifunctional foams should be valuable in many high-end practical applications.

Multifunctional foams derived from poly(melamine formaldehyde) as recyclable oil absorbents

Ultralight, fire-resistant, and compressible foams as recyclable oil absorbents are facilely prepared from cheap melamine resins.

Bioinspired Multifunctional Foam with Self‐Cleaning and Oil/Water Separation

AbstractOil/water separation is a worldwide challenge. Learning from nature provides a promising approach for the construction of functional materials with oil/water separation. In this contribution, inspired by superhydrophobic self‐cleaning lotus leaves and porous biomaterials, a facile method is proposed to fabricate polyurethane foam with simultaneous superhydrophobicity and superoleophilicity. Due to its low density, light weight, and superhydrophobicity, the as‐prepared foam can float easily on water. Furthermore, the foam demonstrates super‐repellency towards corrosive liquids, self‐cleaning, and oil/water separation properties, possessing multifunction integration. We expect that this low‐cost process can be readily and widely adopted for the design of multifunctional foams for large‐area oil‐spill cleanup.

Microstructure-Based Models for Multi-Functional Material Systems

A method to transform X-ray tomography into a detailed finite element model is developed to characterize the response of multi-functional carbon foams. The model incorporates ligament anisotropy and coatings at multiple scales to illustrate the tailorability of material systems for coupled mechanical, electrical, and thermal loads.

Foaming of CNTs/PMMA Nanocomposite with Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

The CNTs/PMMA Nanocomposite Foams Are a Kind of Novel Multifunctional Foams which Have a Potential Application for Lightweight Conductive and EMI Shielding Materials. In this Work, the CNTs/PMMA Nanocomposite Foams with Different CNTs Contents from 1wt.% to 10wt.% Were Prepared at a Temperature Range of 50-140 °C with Supercritical Carbon Dioxide as Blowing Agent. The Results Suggest that the Fully Heterogeneous Nucleation Is Achieved due to the Contribution of Well-Dispersed CNTs in PMMA. The CNTs/PMMA Nanocomposite Foams Exhibit a Uniform Cell Distribution, and the Cell Density Is Two Orders of Magnitude Higher than that of PMMA Foams. The Cell Size and Cell Density of CNTs/PMMA Nanocomposite Foams Could Be Controlled by Adjusting the Foaming Process and CNTs Contents. It Is Also Suggested that the Foaming Process Plays an Important Role on the Cell Structure Rather than that of CNTs Content when it Is Higher than 1wt.%.

Progress in Bionanocomposite and Bioinspired Foams

AbstractSignificant progress is described in the development of cellular solids, specifically functional and multifunctional foams, prepared by bioinspired approaches and consisting of green components. This article covers recent examples mainly developed at the Materials Science Institute of Madrid, ICMM‐CSIC, on bionanocomposites and bioinspired materials conformed as foams. These novel hierarchical porous systems bring out a broad range of advanced applications from biomedical purposes to energy generation and storage.

Mechanical Properties and Morphology of Multifunctional Polypropylene Foams

One of the actual trends in polymer foams consists in the development of new materials by combining density reduction through foaming with the incorporation of functional fillers. This would enable to obtain materials with improved specific properties and added functionalities. There is also a growing interest in the use of environmentally-friendly materials obtained from renewable sources, thus coming as a logical step to combine both in order to create novel biocomposite foams. This work presents an overview of our recent results regarding the preparation and structural and thermo-mechanical characterizations of rigid polypropylene-based composite foams, with the main goal of developing new lightweight materials with tailor-made properties (multifunctional foams). Several reinforcements have been considered, from renewable cellulose fibres to nanometric-sized reinforcements such as silicate-layered nanoclays and carbon nanofibres.

Multifunctional Hybrid Carbon Foams: Integrating Processing and Performance

Finite element models based on X-ray tomography of the carbon foam morphology are developed to characterize response of multifunctional carbon foams. These models incorporate ligament anisotropy as well as coating layers and provide comprehensive information for adapting processing and performance parameters. Illustrations at multiple scales are presented to explore the range of properties in coupled-field environments that are crucial for the emerging multifunctional devices. The results highlight the importance of anisotropy and the impact of common processing defects in tailoring properties. Specifically, coating coverage and quality interfaces are critical in delivering the desired thermoelectrical response.

Multifunctional foam glasses from volcanic glassy rocks

Multifunctional foam glasses from volcanic glassy rocks