Disclosed herein is a porous material comprising a biopolymer functionalized with a carbon dioxide capturing moiety; where the biopolymer is in the form of a foam or an aerogel having a bulk density of 500 grams per cubic meter to 2500 grams per cubic meter. Disclosed herein too is a method comprising functionalizing a biopolymer with a carbon dioxide capturing moiety; dissolving the biopolymer in an aqueous solution to form a first solution; reducing the temperature of the first solution to below the freezing point of the aqueous solution; displacing the aqueous solution with a first solvent that has a lower surface tension than a surface tension of the aqueous solution; and drying the first solvent to produce a porous biopolymer having a bulk density of 500 grams per cubic meter to 2500 grams per cubic meter.

This invention relates to methods of producing aerogels and composites thereof. In particular, the invention relates to methods of producing silica aerogels and composites thereof. The invention also relates to doped aerogels and doped silica aerogels. The method involves the use of alkaline solutions, and particularly aqueous alkaline solutions, during the aerogel drying process. The method is more energy efficient and cheaper than prior art methods.

A soil improver for increasing the liquid storage capacity of soils made of a plastic foam, the plastic foam having at least predominantly open cells, characterized in that the plastic foam has a raw density of 5 to 15 kg/m.sup.3. The invention also relates to a method for producing a plastic foam of such a soil improver.

The present invention provides a new acidic gas adsorbent suitable for adsorption of acidic gas. An acidic gas adsorbent of the present invention includes a porous sheet including a polymer. The polymer has an amino group. The porous sheet has a three-dimensional network skeleton composed of the polymer. A structure of the present invention includes the acidic gas adsorbent and an air flow path. An acidic gas adsorption device of the present invention includes an adsorption part having a gas inlet and a gas outlet. The adsorption part contains the acidic gas adsorbent.

Porous structures are made from compositions that include hollow glass bodies and an inorganic powder. The inorganic powder may act as a rigid frame member, a crystallization agent, or both, which reduces the shrinkage of the porous structures during firing. The porous structures made therefrom have an open porosity of greater than 70% and reduced shrinkage of less than 10% compared to the green structures prior to firing. Methods for firing the green structures made from the compositions are also disclosed, the firing methods including reducing a temperature ramping rate of the green structures during a crystallization temperature range of the glass of the hollow bodies.

A polyethylene terephthalate aerogel. There is provided a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) aerogel comprising a porous network of cross-linked recycled PET fibers, wherein the PET aerogel has a thermal conductivity of 0.030-0.050 W/m K. There is also provided a method of forming the PET aerogel.

Polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) blends derived from plastic waste streams and a method to prepare reusable oil sorbents. A method includes separating plastics of group-A from group-B using a float-sink technique, where group-A comprises various PP and PE materials, and group-B comprises polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate, and polyvinyl chloride; dissolving the group-A plastics in a solvent; adding a cavity forming agent to the solution; applying the solution onto a solid substrate through spin-coating followed by controlled heating; and extracting the cavity forming agent, obtaining a thin film sorbent with swellable cavities for oil sorption. The film contains 400-800 swellable 3D cavities/cm.sup.2, each cavity capable of swelling 20-30 times the thickness of the film when contacted with oil. The method improves compatibility of PP-PE blends without using compatibilizers, resulting in high oil uptake capacity due to swellable cavities, and reusability of sorbent with an oil recovery of more than 98%.

The present invention concerns methods of treating systemic, regional, or local inflammation from a patient suffering or at risk of inflammation comprising administration of a therapeutically effective dose of a sorbent that sorbs an inflammatory mediator in said patient. In some preferred embodiments, the sorbent is a biocompatible organic polymer.

The object of the present invention is to provide an activated carbon with a large equilibrium adsorption amount of 1,1,1-trichloroethane. And the activated carbon of the invention comprising: an equilibrium adsorption amount of 1,1,1-trichloroethane is 20 mg/g or more and a pore volume with the pore diameters of more than 20 and 300 or less is 0.04 cm.sup.3/g or more.

Provided are a lithium adsorbent and a preparation method therefor. A raw material for preparing the lithium adsorbent includes a lithium adsorbent active material and an auxiliary material, where the auxiliary material includes a hydrophilic binder and reinforcing fibers, and the use of the reinforcing fibers and the hydrophilic binder strongly prevents the propagation of brittle cracks caused by volume expansion and contraction of the lithium adsorbent active material during use, significantly increasing the strength and cycle life of the lithium adsorbent, while the use of the hydrophilic binder increases the adsorption rate and capacity of the lithium adsorbent.