Tailorability is one of the biggest advantages of these materials. The matrix material can be selected from almost any metal, polymer, or ceramic. Microballoons are available in a variety of sizes and materials, including glass microspheres, cenospheres, carbon, and polymers. The most widely used and studied foams are glass microspheres (in epoxy or polymers), and cenospheres or ceramics (in aluminium). One can change the volume fraction of microballoons or use microballoons of different effective density, the latter depending on the average ratio between the inner and outer radii of the microballoons.
A manufacturing method for low density syntactic foams is based on the principle of buoyancy.