A process for manufacturing an expanded polystyrene foam article from used expanded polystyrene foam articles in combination with virgin polystyrene foam, the process comprising the steps of: stacking a plurality of individual used expanded polystyrene foam articles in a vertical block machine to occupy at least 20% of the internal volume in the block machine; conveying virgin polystyrene beads into the internal volume of the vertical block machine to occupy at least some of the remaining internal volume of the block machine by mixing the virgin polystyrene with the used stacked foam articles; and heating the internal volume of the block machine to a temperature of at least 75° C. by supplying pressurised steam into the heated internal volume of the block machine to fuse the virgin expanded polystyrene beads and the stacked expanded polystyrene foam articles to form the expanded polystyrene foam article.

A polymer composition including a crosslinkable thermoplastic matrix, a crosslinking agent, a blowing agent, and at least one cell opener is provided. A method of producing an open cell polymer foam from the polymer composition is also provided. The method includes heating a foamable precursor under positive pressure to a temperature greater than a decomposition temperature of the crosslinking agent and below a decomposition temperature of the chemical blowing agent to produce a primary foam. Then, the method includes heating the primary foam to a temperature greater than the decomposition temperature of the chemical blowing agent and then allowing the primary foam to cool to a temperature below a softening temperature of the crosslinkable thermoplastic polymer to form the open cell polymer foam. The produced open cell polymer foam has an open cell content of at least 80% immediately following the step of allowing the primary foam to cool.

The present disclosure provides a polymer matrix composite, and a laminate, a prepreg and a printed circuit board using the same. The polymer matrix composite includes a polymeric resin and a non-woven inorganic material having a dielectric constant of from about 1.5 to about 4.8 and a dissipation factor at 10 GHz below 0.003. The printed circuit board uses the laminate including the polymer matrix as a core layer which is sandwiched between at least two outer layers.

Methods for producing highly spherical particles that comprise: mixing a mixture comprising: (a) nanoclay-filled-polymer composite comprising a nanoclay dispersed in a thermoplastic polymer, (b) a carrier fluid that is immiscible with the thermoplastic polymer of the nanoclay-filled-polymer composite, optionally (c) a thermoplastic polymer not filled with a nanoclay, and optionally (d) an emulsion stabilizer at a temperature at or greater than a melting point or softening temperature of the thermoplastic polymer of the nanoclay-filled-polymer and the thermoplastic polymer, when included, to disperse the nanoclay-filled-polymer composite in the carrier fluid; cooling the mixture to below the melting point or softening temperature to form nanoclay-filled-polymer particles; and separating the nanoclay-filled-polymer particles from the carrier fluid.

To provide a composite comprising a resin foam and a resin member different from the resin foam, which can suppress deterioration of the outer appearance of the resin member.

A composite comprising a resin foam formed by using a blowing agent containing 1-chloro-2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene, and a resin member different from the resin foam, containing a resin selected from the group consisting of a polycarbonate resin, a polystyrene resin, a polyphenylene ether resin, an acrylonitrile/butadiene/styrene resin and a styrene/acrylonitrile copolymer resin.

A particle-dispersed polyimide precursor solution contains a polyimide precursor having a unit represented by the following formula (I), particles, and a solvent, in which the particle-dispersed polyimide precursor solution satisfies both the following conditions (1) and (2),

##STR00001## (in the formula (I), A represents a tetravalent organic group, and B represents a divalent organic group represented by any of the following formulas (B1) to (B4)),

##STR00002## (in the formulas (B1) to (B4), Ar.sup.1, Ar.sup.10, and Ar.sup.11 each independently represent a trivalent aromatic group which may have a substituent, Ar.sup.2, Ar.sup.4, Ar.sup.5, Ar.sup.7 and Ar.sup.8 each independently represent a divalent aromatic group which may have a substituent, Ar.sup.3 and Ar.sup.6 each independently represent a tetravalent aromatic group which may have a substituent or a group represented by the following formula (II), Ar.sup.9 represents a divalent aromatic group which may have a substituent or a group represented by the following formula (III), X.sup.1 to X.sup.7 each independently represent NRa, O, or S, Ra represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group which may have a substituent, or an aryl group, and * represents a bonding site with an adjacent linking group), and

##STR00003## (in the formulas (II) and (III), Ar.sup.12 and Ar.sup.13 each independently represent a trivalent aromatic group which may have a substituent, Ar.sup.14 and Ar.sup.15 each independently represent a divalent aromatic group which may have a substituent, Y and Z each independently represent O, S, S(═O).sub.2, or CRbRc, Rb and Rc each independently represent a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group which may have a substituent, or an aryl group, and * represents a bonding site with an adjacent linking group),

Condition (1): a total content of the groups represented by the formulas (B1) to (B4) is 1% by mass or more and 40% by mass or less with respect to a total amount of the polyimide precursor, and

Condition (2): a content of the particles is 5% by mass or more and 90% by mass or less with respect to a total content of the polyimide precursor and the particles.

The invention relates to a waterproofing composition with high resistance to different weather conditions and improved insulating and anti-impact properties and which is easy to apply and more durable, and to materials based on same. The composition comprises acrylic resins, water, polymeric particulates and additives.

Disclosed are such co-polymers of vinylidene substituted aromatic monomers and unsaturated compounds containing nucleophilic groups chain extended by a copolymer of one or more vinylidene aromatic monomers and one or more unsaturated compounds having pendant electrophilic groups which copolymerize with the one or more vinylidene aromatic monomers. Disclosed are compositions comprising vinylidene substituted aromatic monomers and unsaturated compounds containing nucleophilic groups and a copolymer of one or more vinylidene aromatic monomers and one or more unsaturated compounds having pendant electrophilic groups, which may optionally, contain salts of alkaline earth metals, alkali metals, transition metals, post transition metals or metalloids. Disclosed are methods of preparing such chain-extended and/or branched copolymers.

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a composite molded article which has light weight and a high fire resistance, and further has a high productivity. The composite non-combustible molded article of the present disclosure includes a laminated structure of a metal layer and a foam layer, wherein the foam layer is made of a bead foam, and the thickness Tm (mm) of the metal layer and the density ρe (g/cm.sup.3) of the foam layer satisfy Tm×ρe>0.02, and the 1% dimensional shrinkage temperature of the foam layer is 100° C. or more.

A foaming composition useful to make an extruded foam is comprised of: a copolymer of a vinylidene aromatic monomer and an unsaturated compound containing nucleophilic groups, a copolymer of vinylidene aromatic monomer and an unsaturated compound having electrophilic groups; and a blowing agent. The foaming composition may be made into a foam by heating the foaming composition to a temperature sufficient to melt and react said copolymers to form a chain extended/branched copolymer and extruding the foaming composition from a higher pressure to a lower pressure to form an extruded foam comprised of the chain extended/branched copolymer. The foam is comprised of a chain extended/branched copolymer that is the reaction product of (i) a copolymer of one or more vinylidene aromatic monomers and one or more unsaturated compounds containing nucleophilic groups, and (ii) a copolymer of one or more vinylidene aromatic monomers and one or more unsaturated compounds having electrophilic groups.