Synthesis and Analysis of Gas/Polymer Solutions for Ultra- Microcellular Plastics Production

这位PI发明了一种制造新型聚合材料的方法，并为其申请了专利，他称之为微孔塑料。该过程包括气体/聚合物溶液的形成及其热力学不稳定性的诱导，以形成大量(1015个/cm~3)的微泡或直径约为10-6m的细胞。这些晶胞比聚合物中先前存在的缺陷更小，因此不会损害聚合物的特定机械性能。这既可以在室温下进行，也可以在较高温度下进行。这项技术已被工业界进一步开发和商业化。拟议研究的目标是确定聚合物中超级气体浓缩的基本机制，并开发一种被PI称为超微孔塑料的新材料，其特征是泡孔直径约为10-7m，泡孔密度约为母材的1018个/cm~3。了解控制聚合物中超级气体浓度的物理现象可以用来影响这些材料的性能-结构-性能-加工关系，并帮助设计程序来生产PI计划生产的新的、甚至更稠密的泡沫。与母材和其他泡沫塑料相比，超微孔塑料具有潜在的优势，如透明度、高冲击强度、更高的强度/重量比以及改善的热学和介电性能。在更广泛的范围内，了解这些材料合成过程中涉及的基本现象可用于开发工业技术，例如环境安全发泡技术、滤光片、光学材料、绝缘材料和摄影胶片的衬底。

The PI has invented and patented a process for making a new class of polymeric materials which he calls microcellular plastics. The process consists of the formation of a gas/polymer solution and the inducement of its thermodynamic instability to nucleate a very large number (1015 cells/cm3) of microbubbles or cells which are on the order of 10-6m in diameter. These cells are smaller than the flaws that preexist within polymers and thus do not compromise the polymer's specific mechanical properties. This can be done at room temperature as well as at higher temperatures. The technology has been further developed and commercialized by industry. The goals of the proposed research are to determine the fundamental mechanisms of super gas concentration in polymers and to develop a new class of materials, which the PI is calling ultra-microcellular plastics, which are characterized by cell sizes on the order of 10-7m in diameter and cell densities of the order of 1018 cells/cm3 of parent material. Understanding the physical phenomena governing super gas concentration in polymers can be used to affect the performance-structure-property-processing relationship of these materials and help design procedures to manufacture the new, even more densely packed foams that the PI is planning to produce. Ultra-microcellular plastics have potential advantages over the parent material and over other foams such as transparency, high-impact strength, increased strength-to- weight ratio, and improved thermal and dielectric properties. On a broader scale, understanding the fundamental phenomena involved in the synthesis of these materials could be used to develop industrial technologies for example for environmentally-safe foaming technologies, filters, optical materials, insulation materials, and substrates for photographic films.