Research and application progress of open-cell polymeric foams

Abstract

Polymeric foams have become essential items due to their excellent properties. Open-cell foams are widely used in the fields of sound-absorbing, biomedicine, optics, conduction, etc. In particular, polymer nanocomposites offer modern medicine new opportunities for generating products for antibacterial treatment, tissues engineering, cancer therapy, medical imaging, dental applications and drug delivery, etc. In this paper, the preparation methods, foaming mechanism and application fields of open-cell foams were described, as well as new developments in recent years. Finally, the main problems in the process of material preparation and application were summarized and the future development trend of polymer blending, formation of micro-nano composites, coating of high-barrier materials and polymer modification for the preparation of high-performance open-cell polymer foams was forecasted.

Keywords

• polymeric foam
• open-cell
• nanocomposite
• foaming mechanism
• preparation method