A shear panel building material that includes a first facing membrane, a core matrix disposed on a face of the first facing membrane, and a semi-rigid or rigid material attached to the core matrix. The core matrix can include microspheres having a size of about 200 microns to about 800 microns, sodium silicate, and ethylene vinyl acetate. In one aspect, the shear panel is substantially free from glue and cement.

Light weight composites with high flexural strength comprise epoxy foam sandwiched between two layers of facing material have high strength and low weight and can be used to replace steel structures. The facing layer may be fibrous material especially glass or carbon fibres, the facing material is preferably embedded into the epoxy matrix. Alternatively they may be matching box structures or concentric metal tubes. The sandwich structures may be prepared by laying up the fibre; coating and/or impregnating the layer with epoxy resin, laying a layer of heat activatable foamable epoxy material, providing a further layer of the fibrous material optionally coated and/or impregnated with epoxy resin on the foamable material and healing to foam and cure the epoxy materials. Alternatively they may be formed by extrusion of the foamable material between the surface layers.

A process of forming a building product can include providing a first layer having a first material, and providing a second layer having a second material that different from the first material, wherein the second layer has pores. The process can further include infiltrating a fluid into the pores of the second layer while the first layer is present and adjacent to the second layer, wherein the fluid includes a carbonate. The process can still further include reacting the carbonate with a metal compound within the second layer to form a metal carbonate within the second layer. In another aspect, a building product can include a first layer having a first material, and a second layer having a second material and a third material that includes a metal carbonate. The first material can be different from the second material, and the second and third materials can include the same metal element.

Provided are a multilayered-coating system and a method of manufacturing the same. The multi-layered coating system includes: a layer 1 including a plurality of spherical voids with a radius a.sub.1 that are randomly distributed and separated from one another and a filler material with a refractive index n.sub.1 that is disposed in a space between the spherical voids; and subsequent layers expressed as the following word-equation, “a layer i located above a layer i−1 and including a plurality of spherical voids with a radius a.sub.i that are randomly distributed and separated from one another, and a filler material with a refractive index n.sub.i, the filler material disposed in a space between the spherical voids where i is an integer greater than 1”.

A composition, utility material, and method of making a utility material is disclosed. A composition having an improved setting time may include a plurality of microparticles mixed with a sodium silicate binder and an isocyanate setting agent, where the microparticle composition has a setting time of less than or equal to one hour. A utility material may be a wallboard that includes the composition.

Disclosed herein are engineered composite materials suitable for applications that can benefit from a composite material capable of interacting with or responding to, in a controlled or pre-determined manner, changes in its surrounding environment, such as to attenuate a compression wave. The composite material generally includes a plurality of repeating units, with each repeating unit including a first layer of particles having a first mean diameter, and a second layer of particles having a second mean diameter, and an intermediary material that allows mobility of and contact between the first particles within the first layer and mobility of and contact between the second particles within the second layer; the contact allowing momentum transfer between the particles. The first mean diameter and second mean diameter are different and are less than 500 nm. The first or second particles may be core-shell particles having a core that is partly or completely filled with a liquid, a gas and/or a gel, such as a fire suppressant, a medically active agent or a dye.

Light weight composites with high flexural strength comprise epoxy foam sandwiched between two layers of facing material have high strength and low weight and can be used to replace steel structures. The facing layer may be fibrous material especially glass or carbon fibres, the facing material is preferably embedded into the epoxy matrix. Alternatively they may be matching box structures or concentric metal tubes. The sandwich structures may be prepared by laying up the fibre; coating and/or impregnating the layer with epoxy resin, laying a layer of heat activatable foamable epoxy material, providing a further layer of the fibrous material optionally coated and/or impregnated with epoxy resin on the foamable material and heating to foam and cure the epoxy materials. Alternatively they may be formed by extrusion of the foamable material between the surface layers.

A composition, utility material, and method of making a utility material is disclosed. A composition having an improved setting time may include a plurality of microparticles mixed with a sodium silicate binder and an isocyanate setting agent, where the microparticle composition has a setting time of less than or equal to one hour. A utility material may be a wallboard that includes the composition.

Light weight composites with high flexural strength comprise epoxy foam sandwiched between two layers of facing material have high strength and low weight and can be used to replace steel structures. The facing layer may be fibrous material especially glass or carbon fibres, the facing material is preferably embedded into the epoxy matrix. Alternatively they may be matching box structures or concentric metal tubes. The sandwich structures may be prepared by laying up the fibre; coating and/or impregnating the layer with epoxy resin, laying a layer of heat activatable foamable epoxy material, providing a further layer of the fibrous material optionally coated and/or impregnated with epoxy resin on the foamable material and healing to foam and cure the epoxy materials. Alternatively they may be formed by extrusion of the foamable material between the surface layers.

A shear panel building material that includes a first facing membrane, a core matrix disposed on a face of the first facing membrane, and a semi-rigid or rigid material attached to the core matrix. The core matrix can include microspheres having a size of about 200 microns to about 800 microns, sodium silicate, and ethylene vinyl acetate. In one aspect, the shear panel is substantially free from glue and cement.