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Advances in Materials Science and Engineering

Volume 2014, Article ID 263129, 2 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/263129

Editorial
Production, Characterization, and Applications of
Porous Materials

Nikolaos Michailidis,1 Alexander Tsouknidas,2 Louis-Philippe Lefebvre,3

Thomas Hipke,4 and Naoyuki Kanetake5
1
Physical Metallurgy Laboratory, Mechanical Engineering Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki,
P.O. Box 490, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Frederick University, 1036 Nicosia, Cyprus
3
National Research Council Canada, 75 de Mortagne, Boucherville, QC, Canada H1Y 2V9
4
Department of Light Weight Design, Metal Foam Centre, Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technologies,
09126 Chemnitz, Germany
5
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-cho,
Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8603, Japan

Correspondence should be addressed to Nikolaos Michailidis; [email protected]

Received 6 July 2014; Accepted 6 July 2014; Published 12 August 2014

Copyright © 2014 Nikolaos Michailidis et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.

1. Introduction describe their performance in a specific environment, is of

great importance to multiple scientific fields.
Lightening a structure through the use of holes is a rather The macromechanical response of a noncontinuous
ancient concept that naturally led to the development of the medium under load is nonetheless a multidisciplinary phe-
new porous structures we are seeing today. A pore within nomenon of simultaneously occurring mechanical and phys-
a solid, or cell, can be defined as a spatial confinement of ical processes. The continuous modifications of the structures
air. The shape and size of the cell have significant influence during deformation add further complexity to predicting
on the response of the material to external stimuli. The their elastic and plastic behavior.
ability to describe the behavior of these materials has enabled Finite element techniques have helped to ease this
engineers to tailor the macromechanical properties of porous and related modeling techniques are now considered as
materials to specific requirements. This has considerably pro- ubiquitous in describing the behavior of porous materials.
moted the applicability of such structures, which are playing Advanced mesh generating techniques combined with a
an increasingly important role in several high impact sectors recent increase in computational efficiency of processing soft-
(aerospace, automotive, medical devices, etc.). This can be ware have facilitated the adaptation of such methodologies to
attributed to their unique combination of properties such stochastic geometries as ceramic and metallic foams [1].
as high specific mechanical properties, permeability, specific
surface area, and biomimetic properties. Recent advances in 2. Current Trends
material synthesis have helped in adapting the properties
of porous structures to specific applications. The technical Recent developments in the field of porous materials have
challenge to comprehend and predict the response of these helped the commercialization of new porous materials. Cost
materials when subjected to load has attracted the interest of efficient production processes enabled their acceptance in
engineers and materials scientists. However, porous materials several industrial sectors.
exhibit other characteristics of enormous practical impor- Open and closed cell structures with a stochastic macro-
tance and thus the capacity to systematically and effectively porosity are currently produced with space holder based
2 Advances in Materials Science and Engineering

techniques, gas expansion methods (through the addition of [2] N. Michailidis and F. Stergioudi, “Establishment of process
a decomposing foaming agent) or even chemical reaction parameters for producing Al-foam by dissolution and powder
techniques [2, 3]. These approaches do, however, allow the sintering method,” Materials and Design, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 1559–
control of pore size and distribution, to an adequate extent. 1564, 2011.
Additive manufacturing techniques permit the integra- [3] N. Kanetake and M. Kobashi, “Innovative processing of porous
tion of oriented patterns of pores in a controlled manner. and cellular materials by chemical reaction,” Scripta Materialia,
Layer based fabrication techniques have gained tremendous vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 521–525, 2006.
importance in the production of a variety of materials with [4] A. Tsouknidas, “Friction induced wear of rapid prototyping
designed porosity (i.e., metallic, polymer, and composites). A generated materials: a review,” Advances in Tribology, vol. 2011,
significant limitation of most commercially available printing Article ID 746270, 7 pages, 2011.
devices is, however, associated with high material and main- [5] E. Baril, L. P. Lefebvre, and S. A. Hacking, “Direct visualiza-
tenance costs. Open source rapid prototyping has recently tion and quantification of bone growth into porous titanium
implants using micro computed tomography,” Journal of Mate-
emerged as a cost efficient alternative and may help spreading
rials Science: Materials in Medicine, vol. 22, no. 5, pp. 1321–1332,
the use of these technologies, even for composite materials 2011.
[4].
[6] R. Neugebauer and T. Hipke, “Dynamisches verhalten geschä-
Several techniques have also been introduced for the umter bauteile,” Materialwissenschaft und Werkstofftechnik, vol.
production of micro- and mesoporous media, such as car- 31, no. 6, pp. 515–518, 2000.
bonization methods, imprinting of nanopores in spin-on
[7] N. Michailidis, F. Stergioudi, K. Viglaki, and M. Chatziniko-
dielectric thin films, and hard template methods. laidou, “Production of novel ceramic porous surfaces tailored
for bone tissue engineering,” CIRP Annals—Manufacturing
Technology, vol. 63, no. 1, pp. 557–560, 2014.
3. Emerging Applications
The continuing efforts to explore the interdisciplinary phe-
nomena governing porous materials are dictated by a rapid
growth of technology driven sectors such as medicine, phar-
maceuticals, and energy, as recent breakthroughs in meso-
and macroporous structures have fostered unprecedented
opportunities for new applications [5, 6]. Materials with
mesoporosities ranging of 2–50 nm have been used in drug
delivery systems whereas macroporous bioactive ceramics
loaded with stem cells and molecules are presently investi-
gated to increase tissue regeneration in large osseous defects
[5, 7]. Metallic-organic frameworks, employed as catalysts or
energy conversion and storage devices, molecular sieves and
markers, optics and photonics, inverse opals, and so forth,
are also among the numerous novel applications of porous
materials being developed.

4. Epilogue
Our sincere hope and wish is that the recent development
presented in this issue will contribute to the development
of this multidisciplinary discipline and provide tools to
better understand the properties and characteristics of these
materials.

Nikolaos Michailidis
Alexander Tsouknidas
Louis-Philippe Lefebvre
Thomas Hipke
Naoyuki Kanetake

References
[1] N. Michailidis, E. Smyrnaios, G. Maliaris, F. Stergioudi, and
A. Tsouknidas, “Mechanical response and FEM modeling of
porous Al under static and dynamic loads,” Advanced Engineer-
ing Materials, vol. 16, pp. 289–294, 2013.
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