Ceramic foam
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Ceramic foam is a tough foam made from ceramics. Manufacturing techniques include impregnating open-cell polymer foams internally with ceramic slurry and then firing in a kiln, leaving only ceramic material. The foams may consist of several ceramic materials such as aluminum oxide, a common high-temperature ceramic, and gets insulating powers from the many tiny voids within the material. (Air is a very good thermal insulator, but needs to be trapped, as in a blanket, to be effective.)
The foam can be used not only for thermal insulation, but for a variety of other applications such as acoustic insulation, adsorption of environmental pollutants, filtration of molten metal alloys, and as substrate for catalysts requiring large internal surface area.
It has been used as stiff lightweight structural material, specifically for support of reflecting telescope mirrors.
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