Porosity is sometimes thought of as a flaw in ceramic materials, but, as Paolo Colombo explains, porosity can also be used to add new functionality to a material. Colombo, who is a professor of materials science and technology at the University of Padova, Padova, Italy, and an adjunct professor at Pennsylvania State University, explains how all of the properties of ceramic materials can be manipulated to create applications such as gas separation membranes, metal filters and diesel particulate filters to clean the exhaust of diesel engines.
