Heat-expandable microspheres which have a blowing agent encapsulated efficiently therein so as to prevent the blowing agent from escaping out of the microspheres during storage at high temperature, a process for producing the same, and applications thereof. The process for producing heat-expandable microspheres containing a thermoplastic resin shell and a thermally vaporizable blowing agent encapsulated therein includes preparing an aqueous suspension in which oil droplets of an oily mixture containing the blowing agent and a polymerizable component are dispersed in an aqueous dispersion medium and fine particles of an inorganic compound and a monomer (A) and/or a monomer (B) described below are contained in the aqueous dispersion medium; and polymerizing the polymerizable component, wherein Monomer (A): Polymerizable unsaturated monomer having a total sulfuric acid value ranging from more than 0% to 35%; and Monomer (B): Polymerizable unsaturated monomer with a total phosphoric acid ranging from more than 0% to 50%.

A method for producing superabsorbent polymers from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) virgin or recycled from acrylic fibre manufacturing waste and discarded fabrics subjecting the PAN to alkaline hydrolysis with pressurized water vapour of up to 5 kgf/cm.sup.2 and a PAN:OH.sup.− molar ratio of 1:0.5 to 0.95, to obtain a cross-linked poly(acrylic acid-co-acrylamide) salt without using mechanical agitation, graphitizing agents with starch or cross-linking agents, and without precipitating the superabsorbent polymer obtained from the reaction medium with solvents or through pH adjustment with acids, the polymer obtained with recycled PAN leaves the autoclave already having a moisture content of 20% to 35% and a swelling capacity of >150 g H.sub.2O/g.

The present disclosure relates to thermoplastic polymeric microspheres comprising a thermoplastic polymer shell surrounding a hollow core, in which the thermoplastic polymer shell comprises a homopolymer or copolymer of a monomer of Formula 1

##STR00001## wherein: each of A1 to A11 are independently selected from H and C1 to C4 alkyl, in which each C1-4 alkyl group can optionally be substituted with one or more substituents selected from halogen, hydroxy and C1-4 alkoxy; X is a linking group selected from —O—, —NR″—, —S—, —OC(O)—, —NR″C(O)—, —SC(O)—, —C(O)O—, —C(O)NR″—, and —C(O)S—; and R″ is H or C1-2 alkyl optionally substituted with one or more substituents selected from halogen and hydroxy.

The invention relates to a molding composed of extruded foam, wherein at least one fiber (F) is present with a fiber region (FB2) within the molding and is surrounded by the extruded foam, while a fiber region (FB1) of the fiber (F) projects from a first side of the molding and a fiber region (FB3) of the fiber (F) projects from a second side of the molding, and the extruded foam is produced by an extrusion process comprising the following steps: I) providing a polymer melt in an extruder, II) introducing at least one blowing agent into the polymer melt provided in step I) to obtain a foamable polymer melt, III) extruding the foamable polymer melt obtained in step II) from the extruder through at least one die aperture into an area at lower pressure, with expansion of the foamable polymer melt to obtain an expanded foam, and IV) calibrating the expanded foam from step III) by conducting the expanded foam through a shaping tool to obtain the extruded foam.

Process for preparing a masterbatch comprising 20-90 wt % of a polymer additive dispersed in 10-80 wt % of a thermoplastic polymer, said process comprising the steps of: —providing the additive in liquid form, —optionally heating the additive, —adding solid particles of the thermoplastic polymer to the liquid additive, —heating the resulting mixture to a temperature in or above the melting temperature of the polymer, —treating the mixture with shaping equipment to form solid particles.

An aspect of the present invention relates to a resin composition containing an acrylic resin and a curing agent, in which the acrylic resin contains a polymerization unit (A) of a (meth)acrylate having an epoxy group, a polymerization unit (B) of a (meth)acrylate having a cyano group, and a polymerization unit (C) of a (meth)acrylate having an isobornyl group, a weight average molecular weight of the acrylic resin is 50,000 or more and 3,000,000 or less, and a storage modulus of a cured product of the resin composition at 200° C. is 0.1 MPa or more and 3.5 MPa or less.

A method for making a sulfur based cathode composite material is disclosed. Polyacrylonitrile and elemental sulfur are dissolved together in a first solvent to form a first solution. An electrically conductive carbonaceous material is added to the first solution to mix with the polyacrylonitrile and the elemental sulfur. An environment in which the polyacrylonitrile and the elemental sulfur are located in is changed to reduce a solubility of the polyacrylonitrile and the elemental sulfur in a changed environment to simultaneously precipitate the polyacrylonitrile and the elemental sulfur, thereby forming a precipitate having the electrically conductive carbonaceous material. The precipitate is heated to chemically react the polyacrylonitrile with the elemental sulfur. A sulfur based cathode composite material is also disclosed.

The present invention relates to the preparation of novel anion exchange membranes from bicomponent or tricomponent copolymers containing both quaternizable and cross-linkable moieties. The bicomponent copolymers consisted with polyacrylonitrile and poly(2-dimethylaminoethyl) methacrylate and the tricomponent copolymers consisted with polyacryloniterle and poly2-dimethylaminoethyl) methacrylate and polyn-butyl acrylate. Quaternization of dimethyl amino groups of copolymer by methyl iodide followed by cross-linking of acrylonitrile groups of copolymer by hydrazine hydrate resulted anion exchange membrane with desired properties such as high ion exchange capacity (1.30-1.50 meqg.sup.−1), high transport number (0.92-0.93) for direct use in electrodyalysis unit. The tricomponent anion exchange membrane containing 32 wt % PDMA, 17 wt % PnBA, and 51 wt % PAN exhibited improved performance mainly in terms of low power consumption and high current efficiency during desalination of water.

Provided are a carbon fibre thermoplastic resin prepreg which is a carbon fibre prepreg obtained by impregnating a PAN-based carbon fibre in which the average fibre fineness of a single fibre is 1.0 dtex to 2.4 dtex with a thermoplastic resin, wherein the thermoplastic resin satisfies 20<(FM/FS)<40 (where FM: flexural modulus (MPa) of a resin sheet comprising only the thermoplastic resin, and FS: flexural strength (MPa) of the resin sheet), a method for manufacturing the same, and a carbon fibre composite material employing the carbon fibre prepreg.

The present invention relates to a gas separation membrane for separating a target gas species from a mixture of gas species, the membrane comprising: (i) a porous substrate having a first and second surface region between which the mixture of gas species will flow; (ii) a sealing polymer layer of different composition to the porous substrate that (a) forms a continuous coating across the second surface region of the substrate, and (b) is permeable to the mixture of gas species; and (iii) a selective polymer layer in the form of a cross linked macromolecular film that (a) is located on and covalently coupled to the sealing polymer layer, and (b) has a higher permeability to the target gas species relative to other gas species present in the mixture of gas species that is to be subjected to separation.