Nature-inspired directional freeze-dried 3D structure for functional applications

Abstract

Porous structures are recognized for their lightweight characteristics attributed to internal pores, coupled with high strength or resilience. To overcome the scalability limitations of traditional methods for producing porous structures using photoinduced polymers, freeze-drying techniques have been proposed. Moreover, by employing directional freeze-drying, structures with honeycomb-like pores resembling plant xylem can be fabricated. These structures demonstrate significant strength or resilience relative to their weight, depending on the directionality. In this thesis, various polymers and nanomaterials are utilized to fabricated freeze-dried structures, and the mechanical properties as well as potential applications of these structures are thoroughly investigated.