hydrophobic cellular material is coated with a thin hydrophilic polymer skin which stretches tightly over the outer surface of the foam but which does not fill the cells of the foam , thus resulting in a polymer - coated foam structure having a smoothness which was not possible in the prior art . in particular , when the hydrophobic cellular material is a specially chosen hydrophobic polymer foam and is formed into arbitrarily chosen shapes prior to the coating with hydrophilic polymer , inertial confinement fusion targets of arbitrary shapes can be produced by subsequently coating the shapes with metal or with any other suitable material . new articles of manufacture are produced , including improved icf targets , improved integrated circuits , and improved solar reflectors and solar collectors . in the coating method , the cell size of the hydrophobic cellular material , the viscosity of the polymer solution used to coat , and the surface tensin of the polymer solution used to coat are all very important to the coating .