4. Applications and outlook

Applications and prospects are linked to three main characteristics of nanofoams: their high specific surface area, their very low density, and their mechanical behavior. Specific surface area and mechanical strength enable us to envisage a significant reduction in the quantity of material at equivalent surface interaction rates. Density and mechanical strength are exploited to lighten small structures. Heterogeneous catalysis, electrocatalysis, batteries and supercapacitors are the main applications in the fields of chemistry and energy. These applications are based on the exchange of chemical species at surfaces, with high residence rates due to the nanometric nature of the porous cavities. However, the nanoscale size of the channels forming the nano-foam means that the accessibility of the nano-cavities is very limited, considerably reducing the performance of the materials for these...