A system including a vessel with at least two fluid inlets and a fluid outlet wherein one fluid inlet is positioned higher in the vessel than the other fluid inlet is provided. The fluid inlets may be connected to a polymerization reactor and each fluid inlet may be configured to deliver fluid to the vessel from a different zone of the polymerization reactor. During shut-down of a polymerization reactor, reaction mixture is discharged to a separation system where polymer particles are removed from the mixture prior to being released into the atmosphere.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a thermoplastic resin that has a high refractive index and enables low birefringence and balanced heat resistance and moldability. This thermosetting resin includes repeating units represented by formula (1). (In the formula, the rings Z are the same or different and represent an aromatic hydrocarbon ring, R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 independently represent a C1-C12 hydrocarbon group optionally including a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, and an aromatic group, Ar.sup.1 and Ar.sup.2 represent a C6-C10 aromatic group optionally having a substituent, L.sup.1 and L.sup.2 independently represent a divalent linking group, j and k independently represent an integer of 0 or more, m and n independently represent 0 or 1, and W is at least one selected from the groups represented by formulae (2) and (3).) (In the formula, X represents a divalent linking group.)

The present invention is directed to resins made from cashew nutshell liquid and vinyl hydrocarbons and processes for manufacturing the resins. These resins exhibit lower viscosity than the phenol-based homologs. They also exhibit good compatibility with a wide range of solvents, mineral and natural oils, epoxy curing agents, liquid epoxy resins, and polymers, which make them suitable additives as non-reactive diluents for solvent-free coating formulations; tackifiers for structural adhesive, pressure sensitive and hot-melt adhesives; stabilizers for lubricants, fuel and polymer formulations; plasticizers for thermoplastic polymers and processing aid for rubber compounding and stabilizers for respective rubber artifacts. These resins are also valuable precursors for the manufacture of epoxy resins and polyols for coating, adhesive and composite omulations exhibiting ameliorated performance in water repellency, anti-corrosion, and fast hardness development during cure.

A gas permeable, liquid impermeable membrane for use with gas sensors consists of a film forming polymer which incorporates nanoparticles selected to improve one or more of the following: permeability to gases, to selectively regulate permeability of selected gases through the membrane, to inhibit microbial growth on the membrane. A capsule shaped container consists of wall material biocompatible with a mammal GI tract and adapted to protect the electronic and sensor devices in the capsule, which contains gas composition sensors, pressure and temperature sensors, a microcontroller, a power source and a wireless transmission device. The microprocessor receives data signals from the sensors and converts the signals into gas composition and concentration data and temperature and pressure data for transmission to an external computing device. The capsule wall incorporates gas permeable nano-composite membranes with embedded catalytic and nano void producing nanoparticles, enhancing the operation, selectivity and sensitivity of the gas sensors.

The present invention relates to a process for synthesizing carbon nanotubes by continuous chemical vapor deposition at the surface of reinforcements, said reinforcements constituting a mixture A (i) of particles and/or fibers of a material comprising at least one oxygen atom and (ii) of particles and/or fibers of a material chosen from carbides and/or of a material comprising at least one silicon atom, said process comprising the following steps, carried out under a stream of inert gas(es) optionally as a mixture with hydrogen: (i) heating of said mixture of reinforcements A in a reaction chamber at a temperature ranging from 400° C. to 900° C.; (ii) introducing into said chamber a source of carbon consisting of acetylene and/or xylene, and a catalyst comprising ferrocene; (iii) exposing said heated mixture A to the source of carbon and to the catalyst comprising ferrocene for a sufficient time to obtain carbon nanotubes at the surface of the reinforcements constituting said mixture A; (iv) recovering a mixture B at the end of step (iii), optionally after a cooling step, said mixture B consisting of the mixture (A) of reinforcements comprising carbon nanotubes at their surface; (v) optionally, separation (a) of the particles and/or fibers of a material comprising at least one oxygen atom, (b) of the particles and/or fibers of a material chosen from carbides and/or of a material comprising at least one silicon atom.

A method of producing a medical polyoxypropylene polymer and a polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene block copolymer including (A) adding to a polyoxypropylene polymer which is obtained by ring-opening polymerization of propylene oxide to a starting substance having an active hydrogen reacting with the propylene oxide and contains allyl ether as an impurity, a tertiary alkoxide of alkali metal in an excess amount based on a molar number of the active hydrogen of the starting substance and heat treating at 115° C. or less to isomerize the allyl ether to propenyl ether; and (B) adding a mineral acid to the product obtained in step (A) to adjust pH to 4 or less and treating at 70° C. or less to hydrolyze the propenyl ether. Also disclosed is a method of producing a medical polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene block copolymer which includes performing ring-opening polymerization of ethylene oxide to the polyoxypropylene polymer obtained above.

A method for producing a polyphenylene ether (PPE) provides the PPE that includes less gel and that is good in mechanical property and heat resistance, wherein the method includes a polymerization step of subjecting a phenol compound to oxidative polymerization in the presence of a polymerization catalyst in a good solvent for a polyphenylene ether to thereby provide a polyphenylene ether solution, a catalyst extraction step of adding an aqueous chelating agent solution to the polyphenylene ether solution and extracting the polymerization catalyst into the aqueous chelating agent solution to thereby provide a catalyst-removed polyphenylene ether solution, a concentration step of removing a part of the good solvent from the catalyst-removed polyphenylene ether solution to provide a concentrated polyphenylene ether solution, and a gel removal step of removing at least a visually observable chloroform-insoluble substance from the concentrated polyphenylene ether solution, to thereby provide a gel-removed polyphenylene ether solution.

Provided are compositions including a population of particulates that comprise an at least partially crystalline polycarbonate having an average cross-sectional dimension of from about 1 to about 200 μm, and have a weight-average molecular weight, per polystyrene standards, of from about 17,000 to about 40,000 Daltons. The composition exhibits a zero-shear viscosity of less than about 10.sup.4 Pa.Math.s at the melting temperature of the partially crystalline polycarbonate. Related systems and methods for utilizing these compositions in additive manufacturing applications, including selective laser sintering (SLS) applications, are also disclosed. Also provided are additively-manufactured articles made with the disclosed compositions and according to the disclosed methods.

The present invention provides a polycarbonate resin composition which is capable of maintaining favorable fluidity during molding, inhibiting a bleed-out phenomenon after molding, and further producing molding products with high transparency. Specifically, the polycarbonate resin composition comprises: an aromatic polycarbonate resin; and 0.01 to 1.0 parts by mass of a fatty acid compound relative to 100 parts by mass of the aromatic polycarbonate resin, the fatty acid compound containing at least one selected from the group consisting of fatty acid esters and fatty acid amides. The fatty acid compound has an average molecular weight of 800 to 5000. The fatty acid compound contains 10 to 80% by mass of an unsaturated fatty acid compound relative to the total mass of the fatty acid compound.

The present invention provides a polycarbonate resin composition which is capable of maintaining favorable fluidity during molding, inhibiting a bleed-out phenomenon after molding, and further producing molding products with high transparency. Specifically, the polycarbonate resin composition comprises: an aromatic polycarbonate resin; and 0.01 to 1.0 parts by mass of a fatty acid compound relative to 100 parts by mass of the aromatic polycarbonate resin, the fatty acid compound containing at least one selected from the group consisting of fatty acid esters and fatty acid amides. The fatty acid compound has an average molecular weight of 800 to 5000. The fatty acid compound contains 10 to 80% by mass of an unsaturated fatty acid compound relative to the total mass of the fatty acid compound.