ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Porosity sealing

Have you ever seen a sponge? When you put water on it, the sponge absorbs the water and gets all wet, right? But then when you squeeze the sponge, the water comes out! That's because the sponge has tiny holes in it called pores, and the water can go in and out.

Now imagine something called a porous material. This might be something like a rock or a piece of pottery. Just like the sponge, a porous material has tiny holes all over it. But instead of water, these holes can let things like air or gas or even liquid through!

Sometimes this is a good thing – for example, if you want air to be able to flow through a material to keep something cool, or if you want water to be able to seep through soil to help plants grow.

But other times, you might not want things to be able to pass through a porous material. This is where porosity sealing comes in.

Porosity sealing is the process of filling in all of the tiny holes in a porous material so that nothing can pass through it anymore. This is usually done by applying some kind of special material to the surface of the porous material. This material seeps into all of the little holes and then hardens, creating a seal that blocks off the pores.

This can be helpful in a lot of settings. For example, in engineering, you might use porosity sealing to create a strong and watertight seal in a metal part so that it won't leak or break easily. Or in dentistry, a dentist might use a porosity sealing material to cover up tiny holes in your teeth to prevent bacteria from getting in and causing cavities.

All in all, porosity sealing is a way to make sure that porous materials work the way you want them to, by sealing them up so that nothing can pass through anymore.