A process for preparing a porous material involves at least the steps of providing a mixture (I) containing a composition (A), which contains components suitable to from an organic gel, and a solvent (B); reacting the components in the composition (A) in the presence of the solvent (B) to form a gel; and drying of the gel. The composition (A) contains a catalyst system (CS), which contains at least a catalyst component (C1) selected from ammonium salts and phosphonium salts, and an acid with a phosphor containing acid group as a catalyst component (C2). Porous materials can be obtained in this way and the porous materials can be used as thermal insulation material and in vacuum insulation panels and vacuum insulation systems, in particular in interior or exterior thermal insulation systems as well as for insulation of refrigerators and freezers and in water tank or ice maker insulation systems.

An example device includes a nanovoided polymer element, a first electrode, and a second electrode. The nanovoided polymer element may be located at least in part between the first electrode and the second electrode. In some examples, the nanovoided polymer element may include anisotropic voids. In some examples, anisotropic voids may be elongated along one or more directions. In some examples, the anisotropic voids are configured so that a polymer wall thickness between neighboring voids is generally uniform. Example devices may include a spatially addressable electroactive device, such as an actuator or a sensor, and/or may include an optical element. A nanovoided polymer layer may include one or more polymer components, such as an electroactive polymer.

The invention relates to production of a porous microstructure using the high internal phase emulsion (HIPE) templating technology. The invented method involves subjecting an emulsion prepared by emulsification of two immiscible phases to forced sedimentation, such as subjecting the emulsion to centrifugation, so as to increase the volume ratio of the dispersed phase to the continuous phase to obtain a high internal phase emulsion (HIPE), following by curing the continuous phase, whereby the porous microstructure thus produced has an increased porosity.

A membrane filter is provided. The membrane filter including an ordered functional nanoporous material (OFNM) defining a layer and a membrane support. The layer having a two-dimensional structure and defining a plurality of pores and imparting to the membrane filter a permeance of at least 900 Lm.sup.−2h.sup.−1bar.sup.−1 and a rejection of at least 60% as to a solvent containing a filterable species.

Disclosed are methods of making porous polymeric materials. Also provided herein are porous polymeric materials prepared by the disclosed methods.

A method of producing a polymer aerogel includes dissolving precursors into a solvent, wherein the precursors include monomers, crosslinkers, a controlling agent and an initiator to form a precursor solution, wherein at least one of the monomers or at least one of the crosslinkers has a refractive index of 1.5 or lower, polymerizing the precursor solution to form a gel polymer, and removing the solvent from the gel polymer to produce the polymer aerogel. A method of producing a polymer aerogel include dissolving precursors into a solvent, wherein the precursors include monomers, crosslinkers, a controlling agent and an initiator to form a precursor solution, polymerizing the precursor solution to form a gel polymer, removing the solvent from the gel polymer to produce the polymer aerogel, and reducing a refractive index of one of either the gel polymer or the polymer aerogel.

The present invention discloses novel porous polymeric compositions comprising random copolymers of amides, imides, ureas, and carbamic-anhydrides, useful for the synthesis of monolithic bimodal microporous/macroporous carbon aerogels. It also discloses methods for producing said microporous/macroporous carbon aerogels by the reaction of a polyisocyanate compound and a polycarboxylic acid compound, followed by pyrolytic carbonization, and by reactive etching with CO.sub.2 at elevated temperatures. Also disclosed are methods for using the microporous/macroporous carbon aerogels in the selective capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide.

Disclosed are a chitin/graphene composite sponge and a preparation method and a use thereof. The method comprises mixing and ball-milling a certain amount of flake graphite and chitin, dissolving a mixture of the flake graphite and the chitin in a NaOH/urea solvent, performing centrifugal separation, dispersing evenly, cross-linking with an epichlorohydrin cross-linking agent, standing, dialyzing, and freeze-drying, thus obtaining the chitin/graphene composite sponge.

A liquid composition that contains a polymerizable compound and a solvent, and that can form a porous resin. The liquid composition, when stirred, transmits at least 30 percent of incident light having a wavelength of 550 nm. The haze value of an containing the liquid composition increases by 1.0 percent or more when the element containing the liquid composition is cured.

The invention relates to a porous material comprising at least one polyfunctional isocyanate (a1) and at least one polyfunctional substituted aromatic amine (a2-s) of the general formula (I): ##STR00001##
where R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 are selected from among hydrogen and linear or branched alkyl groups having from 1 to 6 carbon atoms and all substituents Q.sup.1 to Q.sup.5 and Q.sup.1′ to Q.sup.5′ are selected from among hydrogen, a primary amino group and a linear or branched alkyl group having from 1 to 12 carbon atoms, where at least one of Q.sup.1, Q.sup.3 and Q.sup.5 and at least one of Q.sup.1′, Q.sup.3′ and Q.sup.5′ is a primary amino group and the compound has at least one linear or branched alkyl group having from 1 to 12 carbon atoms in the α position relative to at least one primary amino group bound to the aromatic ring in formula (I).