  Ice templating, also known as freeze casting, is a popular shaping route for
macroporous materials. Over the past 15 years, it has been widely applied to
various classes of materials, and in particular ceramics. Many formulation and
process parameters, often interdependent, affect the outcome. It is thus
difficult to understand the various relationships between these parameters from
isolated studies where only a few of these parameters have been investigated.
We report here the results of a meta analysis of the structural and mechanical
properties of ice templated materials from an exhaustive collection of records.
We use these results to identify which parameters are the most critical to
control the structure and properties, and to derive guidelines to optimize the
mechanical response of ice templated materials. We hope these results will be a
helpful guide to anyone interested in such materials.
