Polymer Foams: Relationship between Structure and Properties
A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Processing and Engineering".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2021) | Viewed by 2606
Special Issue Editor
2. Cellular Materials Laboratory (CellMat), Universidad de Valladolid, 47011 Valladolid, Spain
Interests: structure-properties relationship in polymeric foams; foaming processes; development of advanced materials; polyolefin-based foams; multifunctional foams; tailored formulations; foamability
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The analysis of the structure–properties relationship of polymeric foams is one of the pillars of understanding the performance of these outstanding materials and encourage the production and development of novel and advanced polymeric foams and foaming processes.
The structure and the properties of cellular materials are the consequence of two main factors: the base formulation (i.e., chemical composition) and the foaming process employed to generate the material. The characteristics of the formulation, mainly its foamability, determine, for a specific foaming process, the density that it is possible to achieve, and condition the morphology of the cellular structure. On the other hand, at a fixed target density and formulation, the selected foaming technology plays a vital role in the morphology of the cellular structure and, therefore, in the properties of the obtained materials.
The interconnection between all these relevant aspects makes it necessary to deepen the understanding of the relationship between the structure and the properties of cellular materials and how they both relate to the chemical composition of the material and the selected processing technologies.
The analysis of the structure–properties relationship is critical for any new development in terms of polymeric matrices, additives, blowing agents, foaming processes, or analytical models accounting for the performance of foams.
Facing the challenges defined by the end-users surrounding the main fields of applications of cellular materials requires a strong commitment regarding this particulartopic. Therefore, this Special Issue aims to contribute to the connection between the structure and properties of different types of polymeric foams and how they relate to other relevant aspects, such as their chemical composition or the selected foaming process.
Dr. Cristina Saiz-Arroyo
Guest Editor
Keywords
- Structure–properties relationship
- Density
- Foaming processes
- Foamability
- Mechanical properties
- Thermal properties
- Acoustic properties
- Cellular structure
- Polymeric foams
