Ice Templating and Freeze-Drying for Porous Materials and Their Applications

1Introduction to Freeze‐drying and Ice Templating

1.1 Introduction

Freeze‐drying is a widely used drying technique in pharmaceutics, biologics, and food industries. It is a preferred drying technique when dealing with temperature‐sensitive chemicals/substances, as it can produce dry powders or cakes for easy storage and transport. From the perspective of pharmaceutical applications, the freeze‐dried products should also have a reasonable shelf life and be readily reconstituted with the anticipated drug activity [1–4].

A freeze‐drying process, especially for pharmaceutics and biologics, consists of three steps, i.e. freezing on a cold shelf in a freeze‐dryer chamber, primary drying, and secondary drying [1, 4]. The freeze‐drying process is usually ...