A method for surface treatment of acrylate-based superabsorbents may include preparing a treatment solution including water, an organic solvent, and a silane compound; applying the treatment solution to a plurality of acrylate-based superabsorbents to form a mixture; and fabricating modified acrylate-based superabsorbents by subjecting the mixture to heating or microwave irradiation.

The subject invention concerns metal or metalloid oxide-based sol-gel hybrid sorbent and methods of synthesis. In one embodiment, the sorbent is a ZrO.sub.2 polypropylene oxide based sol-gel. The subject invention also concerns a hollow tube or capillary internally coated with a sorbent of the invention. Sorbent coated tubes and capillaries of the invention can be used in extraction and/or enrichment of samples to be analyzed for catecholamines and related compounds.

The technology disclosed herein provides a particulate filter that can appropriately avoid PM from passing toward the outlet cell and can exhibit an excellent PM capturing performance. The particulate filter 1 disclosed herein includes: an outercoat layer 20 provided on an inlet surface 16a of a partition 16 of a base material 10. The outercoat layer 20 at least includes: a lower layer 22 provided on the inlet surface 16a of the partition 16; and an upper layer 24 provided to cover the lower layer 22. The mean particle diameter of granules contained in the upper layer 24 is higher than the mean particle diameter of granules contained in the lower layer. The mean particle diameter of the granules in the lower layer 22 is from 0.4 m to 2.0 m inclusive, and the mean particle diameter of the granules in the upper layer 24 is from 2.0 m to 7.0 m inclusive. With such a configuration, PM can be captured in an inlet cell 12, thereby suitably avoiding PM from passing toward an outlet cell 14 and exhibiting an excellent PM capturing performance.

The invention relates to new compositions of polyorganic functional groups modified silica. The compositions contain a wide range of different functional groups such as mercapto, sulfide, thiourea, amines and amides in the same composition and each of these functional groups are present in an array of numerous different oligomers, configurations and stereochemistry. These functional groups have a strong affinity for metals and particular targets. Combining a high number of these functional groups together in the same composition enhances the overall binding affinity of the functionalised material. Combination with different structural configurations further enhances the capacity to bind to diverse structural variations in the targets found in actual process, product and waste streams. This multitude of binding mechanisms enables very high levels of purification and target removal as well as selectivity to be achieved in product, process and waste streams. The compounds are useful for the purification of products and for the removal of unwanted organic and inorganic compounds from product, process and waste streams, as chromatography medium for the purification and separation of metals, metal complexes and organic and biological compounds, for solid phase extraction, for solid phase synthesis, for metal mediated heterogeneous catalysis, for metal ion abstraction and for the immobilisation of bio-molecules.

Disclosed are absorbent articles having a cyclodextrin complex of one or more odor controlling organic compounds wherein the cyclodextrin is a substituted cyclodextrin (wherein the H atom of OH groups in positions 2, 3 and 6 is partially or entirely replaced by a substituent R) having a substitution degree (DS) of 0.4 or more R substituents per molecule of cyclodextrin and wherein substitution in position 2 is 20% or above, in position 6 is 20% or above and in position 3 is 50% or below. Cyclodextrin complexes of this type release the odor controlling organic compound much faster and in more complete manner than non-substituted or differently substituted cyclodextrin complexes thus the odor control efficacy is improved.

A process is disclosed for limiting the emissions of gases from a porous material in the form of particles comprising a porous inorganic support and at least 0.1% by weight of one or more compounds chosen from organic compounds, halogen compounds, boron compounds and phosphorus compounds. The particles are placed in motion within a hot gas stream traversing them, and a liquid composition containing one or more film-forming polymer(s) is sprayed over the moving particles by means of a twin-fluid atomization nozzle, in which the liquid composition is mixed with a pressurized gas, with a relative atomization pressure of greater than or equal to 0.710.sup.5 Pa, until a protective layer containing the film-forming polymer(s) and exhibiting a mean thickness of less than or equal to 20 m is obtained on the surface of the said particles. A material resulting from this process is also disclosed.

A process of making an adsorbent body, wherein the process includes the steps of: (a) contacting adsorbent material with an initial mixture to form a solvated adsorbent mixture in a first solvent; (b) removing the first solvent and removing at least some of the first solvent from the solvated adsorbent mixture in the first solvent to form an initial adsorbent body; (c) contacting the initial adsorbent body with a second solvent to form a reduced-binder adsorbent body in a second solvent; and (d) solvent-drying the reduced-binder adsorbent body to form the adsorbent body. Also described is an adsorbent body, and the use of the adsorbent body in gas storage.

The present invention relates to a magnetic nanoparticle comprising: a) a core containing a ferromagnetic material; b) an outer coating containing a mixture of a lipophilic compound and a hydrophilic compound. The outer coating of the above particle makes the nanoparticle stable in water and, simultaneously, capable of adsorbing/emulsifying large amounts of hydrophobic/lipophilic compounds. The present invention further relates to a process for the preparation of the above- mentioned particles as well as their use in the removal of hydrocarbons from solid or liquid environments and metal ions from contaminated water (wastewater).

A composite material for an absorbent article and a method for manufacturing said composite material, said composite material being obtained by causing an absorbent material to adhere by electrostatic interaction to a substrate material, the surface of the absorbent material being positively or negatively charged in a prescribed solvent selected from among a nonpolar organic solvent, a polar organic solvent, and a water/polar organic solvent mixture; and the surface of the composite material being charged to an electrical charge opposite to that of the surface of the substrate material, in the prescribed solvent. The substrate material has a fiber substrate or a plastic substrate, and a polyelectrolyte layer provided on the surface layer; and/or the absorbent material has an absorbent-particle substrate or an absorbent fiber substrate, and a polyelectrolyte layer provided on the surface layer.

The invention relates to methods for making completely biodegradable, hydrophobic, oleophilic plant based materials which are useful in adsorption of petroleum products. The materials have an average diameter of from 1 to 5 mm, and an ash content of from 10% to 30%. The non-paraffin coating is an animal fat product, preferably produced by dissolving a pure animal fat and using this as the coating material.