The present invention includes methods of making a nanocellulosic composition comprising one or more nanocellulosic components, wherein the one or more nanocellulosic components comprise a micron-scale cellulose or cellulose nanofibrils (CNF), the method comprising the steps of: creating a nanocellulosic slurry by combining the one or more of nanocellulosic components with a liquid component; and exposing the nanocellulosic slurry to a drying condition, wherein the drying condition comprises microwave radiation, thereby creating a nanocellulosic composition. The present invention also includes compositions comprising cellulose (nanocellulosic compositions), wherein the nanocellulosic compositions have an internal void space of about 5% to about 95% by volume.

A foam containing a nitrile group-containing conjugated diene copolymer and a urethane polymer, wherein relative to 100 wt % of the sum of the nitrile group-containing conjugated diene copolymer and the urethane polymer, the nitrile group-containing conjugated diene copolymer is present in an amount of less than 90 wt % and the urethane polymer is present in an amount of more than 10 wt %, the nitrile group-containing conjugated diene copolymer contains ethylenically unsaturated nitrile monomer units in an amount of more than 31 wt %, the foam has a density of 0.08 to 0.30 g/cm.sup.3, and in observation of an arbitrary cross section of the foam, air bubble cross sections present in the cross section have an average diameter of 350 μm or less, and the number of air bubble cross sections with a diameter of 0.6 mm or more present in the cross section is 0.062 per mm.sup.2 or less.

A shoe sole member formed by a foam includes cells having a certain size and being excellent in transparency in order to provide a shoe sole member being lightweight and excellent cushioning properties while having transparency.

Examples include a device including a nanovoided polymer element having a first surface and a second surface, a first plurality of electrodes disposed on the first surface, a second plurality of electrodes disposed on the second surface, and a control circuit configured to apply an electrical potential between one or more of the first plurality of electrodes and one or more of the second plurality of electrodes to induce a physical deformation of the nanovoided polymer element.

There is provided a porous polyimide film in which the pore distribution width A represented by the following formula is 1.15 or less, the average pore diameter is within a range of 0.50 μm to 3.0 μm, and the air permeation speed is 30 seconds or less:
A=(D.sub.84/D.sub.16).sup.1/2 wherein D.sub.16 is the pore diameter at 16% cumulation from the small diameter side of pores, and D.sub.84 is the pore diameter at 84% cumulation from the small diameter side of pores.

An embodiment includes a system comprising: a monolithic shape memory polymer (SMP) foam having first and second states; wherein the SMP foam includes: (a) polyurethane, (b) an inner half portion having inner reticulated cells defined by inner struts, (c) an outer half portion, having outer reticulated cells defined by outer struts, surrounding the inner portion in a plane that provides a cross-section of the SMP foam, (d) hydroxyl groups chemically bound to outer surfaces of both the inner and outer struts. Other embodiments are discussed herein.

A resin sheet includes the porous structure. The porous structure is configured to adjust transmission of a millimeter wave. The porous structure has a relative permittivity varying in a thickness direction of the resin sheet such that a difference between average relative permittivities in two adjacent layer portions is a predetermined value or less, the layer portions each having a particular thickness smaller than a wavelength of the millimeter wave. The porous structure includes a boundary portion being one of the layer portions, the boundary portion having a maximum average relative permittivity. The relative permittivity increases in stages from end portions of the porous structure toward the boundary portion, the end portions being defined in the thickness direction of the resin sheet.

Described herein are physically crosslinked, closed cell continuous multilayer foam structures that includes a foam layer comprising polypropylene, polyethylene, or a combination of polypropylene and polyethylene and a polyamide cap layer. The multilayer foam structure can be obtained by coextruding a multilayer structure comprising at least one foam composition layer and at least one cap composition layer, irradiating the coextruded structure with ionizing radiation, and continuously foaming the irradiated structure.

Polymer foams based on polyetherimides (PEIs) fulfill the legal specifications demanded by the aviation industry for aircraft interiors. Specifically, the demands on fire characteristics, stability to media and mechanical properties constitute a great challenge here. According to related art, suitable polymer foams are produced as semi-finished products. Reprocessing to give shaped articles is uneconomic in terms of time and material exploitation, for example by virtue of large amounts of cutting waste. The material is suitable in principle and can be processed to give particle foam mouldings. These mouldings can be produced without reprocessing in short cycle times and, hence, economically. Furthermore, this gives rise to new means of functional integration, for example by direct incorporation of inserts etc. in the foam, and with regard to freedom in terms of design.

A composition and method for making extruded polystyrene (XPS) foam is provided. The composition includes an infrared attenuation agent composition comprising conductive polymers to achieve an XPS foam having an improved thermal insulation performance. In some exemplary embodiments, the conductive polymers comprise doped polypyrrole and doped polyaniline. In some exemplary embodiments, the XPS foam includes a carbon dioxide-based blowing agent.