Ultralight sponges of poly(para-xylylene) by template-assisted chemical vapour deposition.

Particle foams and open cell sponges play nowadays an important role in academia and industrial research. The fabrication of new high-performance foams is one of the challenges. Until now, it is impossible to visualise the quality of particle foams, and the quantification is only possible with expensive analytical methods like scanning electron microscopy. In this work, we demonstrate a simple method for the visualisation of void sizes and defects inside particle foams on the basis of expanded polystyrene. The concept was transferred to porous materials, which work as templates for the formation of ultralight poly(para-xylylene) foams with stunning properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]