ABSTRACT
Naturally grown plants perform like wood allowing the manufacturing of cellular ceramics with unidirectional porous structures. Natural wood morphologies are characterized by an open porous system of tracheidal cells, which provide the transportation path for water and minerals in the living plant (cf., e.g., [13]). The inherent cellular highly open porous system, accessible for infiltration of various liquid or gaseous metals, is used for the design of novel porous ceramics. The transformation of carbonized wood into porous carbide ceramics can be done by infiltration-reaction processes with various carbide-forming metals (e.g., Si, Ti).
