A glass mat is provided. The glass mat includes an assembly of glass fibers; and a binder composition including a polymer resin and a crosslinker. The polymer resin has a pH of at least about 5.0. The polymer resin includes a styrenic copolymer, an acrylic copolymer, or combination thereof having at least one functional group of a carboxylic acid, a salt of a carboxylic acid, an anhydride, a salt of an anhydride, or combination thereof. The crosslinker includes a polyol, a polyepoxy, a polycarbodiimide, a polyaziridine, a bivalent metal carbonate, or combination thereof. Further provided is a method of making the glass mat.

The invention relates to a hardenable casting compound for producing molded plastic components, comprising a casting compound having a binder material composition and a filler material composition, wherein the filler material composition comprises at least one portion of granular mineral particles, wherein a filler material composition comprises a second portion of expandable microcells having less than 1.0 wt. %.

Provided is a method for efficiently producing recycled water-absorbing resin particles from, as a raw material, discarded water-absorbing resin particles derived from used sanitary supplies, etc., the recycled water-absorbing resin particles having decreased little in absorption property and having various excellent properties. The method for producing water-absorbing resin particles of the present invention comprises a polymerization step (I) in which an aqueous gel containing a crosslinked polymer (A) of a water-soluble vinyl monomer (a1) is obtained, a gel reduction step (II) in which the aqueous gel is reduced into particles to obtain aqueous-gel particles, a step (Va) in which resin particles including the crosslinked polymer (A) and obtained from the aqueous-gel particles are mixed with a surface-crosslinking agent (d), and a reaction step (Vb) in which the surface-crosslinking agent (d) is reacted.

The resin composition of the present invention comprises a polyvinyl acetal resin (A) and an acrylic-based polymer (B), in which the acrylic-based polymer (B) is a polymer of a monomer component comprising an acrylic-based monomer, a dHSP/R of the monomer component relative to the polyvinyl acetal resin (A) is 1.16 or less, and a content of the acrylic-based polymer (B) is 20 parts by mass or more and 90 parts by mass or less based on 100 parts by mass of the polyvinyl acetal resin (A).

An acrylic rubber sheet excellent in storage stability and water resistance, a method for producing the same, a rubber mixture containing the acrylic rubber sheet and a rubber cross-linked product thereof are provided. The acrylic rubber sheet according to the present invention includes an acrylic rubber having a reactive group and having a weight average molecular weight (Mw), a ratio of a Z-average molecular weight (Mz) and a weight average molecular weight (Mw) in a specific range. The acrylic rubber sheet according to the present invention has an ash content of 0.2% by weight or less, an amount of gel insoluble in methyl ethyl ketone is 50% by weight or less, and a water content of less than 1% by weight, and is excellent in water resistance and highly well-balanced in strength properties and processability.

Provided is an optical article having a substrate, a primer layer generated by curing a polymerizable composition for forming the primer layer, and a photochromic layer generated by curing a (meth)acrylate-based polymerizable composition containing a photochromic compound in this order, in which the polymerizable composition for forming the primer layer contains a component A: polyisocyanate and a component B: hydroxy group-containing (meth)acrylate.

This invention discloses a reticulated film composite and a method of fabricating the reticulated film composite suitable as a separator in electrochemical cells as sound absorbing films, or as high efficiency filtering media. The reticulated film composite is produced by casting and drying of a slurry which exhibits a high yield stress (i.e. greater than 50 dyne/cm2) and comprised of a high MW resin dissolved in a solvent (i.e. having solution viscosity of higher than 100 cp at 5% in NMP or in water at room temperature) and dispersed nanoparticles with high specific surface areas (i.e. greater than 10 m2/g) such as fumed alumina, or fumed silica, or fumed zirconia or mixture thereof. This reticulated film composite exhibits superior cycling properties and high ionic conductivity with a porosity up to 80% while maintains a high dimensional stability (i.e. less than 10% shrinking) at elevated temperatures (up to 140° C.). The reticulated composite separator coating can be used in combination with an electrode coating either in two separate process steps, or in a one-step process by having a simulations multi-layer casting of electrode and separator to manufacture a lithium ion battery.

The invention relates to a curable volume expandable polymer composition comprising an organic acid component, wherein the organic acid component comprises a first organic acid, a second organic acid, and optionally one or more additional organic acids; wherein said polymer composition, when being heated to an activation of expansion temperature above room temperature, undergoes volume expansion. When the organic acid component is heated to the activation of expansion temperature, the first organic acid and/or the second organic acid and/or the optionally present one or more additional organic acids decarboxylate and thus release carbon dioxide. The polymer composition traps the thus released carbon dioxide thereby causing the polymer composition to undergo volume expansion.

Poly(acrylic acid)-based superabsorbent polymer (SAP) in a feed stream is converted with UV irradiation into poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) in a flow system. The UV total energy used to convert SAP into PAA is less than about 50 MJ/kg SAP.

The present invention provides a (meth)acryloyl compound suitable to prepare a medical material having beneficial hydrophilicity and sufficient strength; and a method for preparing the compound. A compound represented by the following formula (1):

##STR00001##

wherein R.sup.1 is a hydrogen atom or a methyl group, R.sup.2 is a monovalent hydrocarbon group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, R.sup.3 is a hydrogen atom or a methyl group and, L is a divalent hydrocarbon group having 2 to 10 carbon atoms and optionally having an ether bond.