The invention refers to a method for producing expanded polymer pellets, which comprises the following steps: melting a polymer comprising a polyamide; adding at least one blowing agent; expanding the melt through at least one die for producing an expanded polymer; and pelletizing the expanded polymer. The invention further concerns polymer pellets produced with the method as well as their use, e.g. for the production of cushioning elements for sports apparel, such as for producing soles or parts of soles of sports shoes. A further aspect of the invention concerns a method for the manufacture of molded components, comprising loading pellets of an expanded polymer material into a mold, and connecting the pellets by providing heat energy, wherein the expanded polymer material of the pellets or beads comprises a chain extender. The molded components may be used in broad ranges of application.

A method for modifying a cellular polymer foam with apparent porosity, which includes providing a cellular polymer foam with apparent porosity, placing the cellular polymer foam in contact with at least one compound in order to obtain a cellular polymer foam including on the surface thereof an intermediate phase formed from the compound having at least one catechol unit. The foam may be used as a catalyst substrate.

Disclosed herein are surface-modified membranes and other surface-modified substrates exhibiting switchable oleophobicity and oleophilicity in aqueous media. These membranes and substrates may be used for variety of applications, including controllable oil/water separation processes, oil spill cleanup, and oil/water purification. Also provided are the making and processing of such surface-modified membranes and other surface-modified substrates.

Amine groups can be introduced in porous materials by a direct (one pot) or post-synthetic modification (PSM) process on aldehyde groups, and the resulting porous materials have increased gas affinity.

The present invention relates to a method of preparing thermal insulation expandable polystyrene particles and thermal insulation expandable polystyrene particles, and more particularly to a method of preparing thermal insulation expandable polystyrene particles which include preparing a mixture of expandable polystyrene particles and a thermal insulation material by mixing the expandable polystyrene particles and the thermal insulation material; preparing a mixture solution by dissolving chlorinated paraffin and at least one of a paraffin oil and a rubber resin in an organic solvent dissolving styrene; and softening a surface layer of the expandable polystyrene particles by spraying the mixture with the mixture solution, while stirring the mixture, and infiltrating the thermal insulation material, the chlorinated paraffin and the at least one of the paraffin oil and the rubber resin into the surface layer of the expandable polystyrene particles, and thermal insulation expandable polystyrene particles prepared by the same.

The present disclosure discloses a method for preparing a polyurethane foam using an extract of cotton spinning black liquor, including the following steps: step (1): extracting biomass in cotton spinning black liquor by acid precipitation to obtain the extract of cotton spinning black liquor; step (2): pretreating the extract of cotton spinning black liquor, and uniformly mixing the pretreated extract of cotton spinning black liquor with a polyether polyol to obtain a mixed raw material; and step (3): preparing the polyurethane foam from the mixed raw material, dibutyltin dilaurate, distilled water, a foam stabilizer, aluminum hypophosphite and an isocyanate by one-step foaming. The present disclosure can solve the problems of high treatment cost and low utilization rate of the existing cotton spinning black liquor.

Method for lowering the formaldehyde emissions of melamine/formaldehyde polymer moldings, films or fibers by impregnating the melamine/formaldehyde polymer moldings, films or fibers with an aqueous solution of at least one formaldehyde scavenger.

Provided are a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) physically-foamed roll and a semi-continuous preparation method thereof. In the preparation method, the desorption of a high-pressure fluid is inhibited by controlling a solubility of the high-pressure fluid in a TPE roll and then subjecting the material to a quick freezing and gas-locking treatment at a specific temperature, and an impregnated roll can be stored at a low temperature for a long time or subjected to long-distance transportation, and can be stably subjected to continuous heating and foaming, which allows large-scale continuous production and is safe and environmentally-friendly. The present disclosure also provides a TPE physically-foamed roll prepared by the preparation method, and the TPE physically-foamed roll has a thickness of 0.1 mm to 3 mm, a density of 0.1 g/cm.sup.3 to 0.6 g/cm.sup.3, a foam cell size of 1 m to 200 m, and a Shore hardness of 20 C to 60 C.

A functionalized cellular elastomer foam, and a use of a cellular elastomer foam as a catalyst substrate. The cellular elastomer foam is formed by supplying a porous cellular elastomer foam with an apparent porosity and having a mean equivalent diameter of the opening of the pores comprised between 100 m and 5,000 m. The porous cellular elastomer foam is then placed in contact with at least one compound including at least one catechol unit, and polymerizing the compound including at least one catechol unit on the surface of said porous cellular elastomer foam, thereby obtaining a mechanically flexible catalyst substrate that includes the cellular elastomer foam having on its surface an intermediate phase formed from the at least one compound including at least one catechol unit.