The innovations of materials science and modern technologies are boosting the prosperity of polymer composites in various emerging multi-disciplinary fields. Cooperating with the conventional and emerging processing methods, the freeze-casting (ice-templating) technique is attracting interest in the assembling of three-dimensional structural materials (3D-SMs) accompanying the growth of ice crystals. These unique 3D-SMs with isotropic, cellular, lamellar and radially aligned structures have enabled to fabricate multifunctional polymer composites as diverse as mechanically reinforced materials, electrically conductive materials, thermally conductive materials, thermally insulating materials, adsorbents, energy-related materials, biomaterials, and many more. Herein, the working principles and methodologies of ice-templating strategy and its recent advances in shaping and structuring of 3D-SMs and production of corresponding multifunctional polymer composites are summarized. Finally, directions and prospects lying ahead are highlighted, involving the structure designs, processing routes and potential applications. Freeze-casting has manifested responsibilities for producing advanced functional composites. What is it being prepared to do?

材料科学和现代技术的创新正在促进新兴的多学科领域中聚合物复合材料的繁荣。与传统的和新兴的加工方法相结合，冷冻浇铸（冰模板）技术引起了人们对伴随冰晶生长的三维结构材料（3D-SM）组装的兴趣。这些具有各向同性，多孔，层状和径向排列结构的独特3D-SM能够制造多功能聚合物复合材料，包括机械增强材料，导电材料，导热材料，绝热材料，吸附剂，能源相关材料，生物材料，还有很多。在这里 总结了制冰策略的工作原理和方法，及其在3D-SM的成型和构造以及相应的多功能聚合物复合材料生产中的最新进展。最后，重点介绍了未来的方向和前景，包括结构设计，加工路线和潜在应用。冷冻浇铸已显示出生产高级功能复合材料的责任。它准备做什么？