Conventional and novel processing methods for cellular ceramics

Cellular ceramics are a class of highly porous materials that covers a wide range of structures, such as foams, honeycombs, interconnected rods, interconnected fibres, interconnected hollow spheres. Recently, there has been a surge of activity in this field, because these innovative materials have started to be used as components in special and advanced engineering applications. These include filtering liquids and particles in gas streams, porous burners, biomedical devices, lightweight load-bearing structures, etc. Improvements in conventional processing methods and the development of innovative fabrication approaches are required because of the increasing specific demands on properties and morphology (cell size, size distribution and interconnection) for these materials, which strictly depend on the application considered. This paper will cover the main fabrication methods for cellular ceramics, focusing primarily on foams, offering some insight into novel fabrication processes and recent developments.