Microcellular foams; Here's how

Journal Article · Wed May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1991 · CHEMTECH; (United States)

OSTI ID:7279791

Aubert, J H; Sylwester, A P ^[1]

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1. Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Close to a million tons of polystyrene foams are manufactured in the United States each year. This product is prepared by diffusing a blowing agent (usually 6% pentane) into beads and expanding the beads above the glass transition temperature of polystyrene (100{degrees} C). Each bubble nucleation site becomes the center of a roughly spherical foam cell, which has a diameter of 50 to 150 {mu}m. The use of these is based on their insulating and shockabsorbing capabilities. What if one wanted to make a package with a thickness of only 200{mu}m This paper reports that at Sandia National Laboratories, this is not as uncommon a request as one might think. A number of targets for high-energy physical experiments require low-density foam coatings or small low-density foam supports with dimensions smaller than a millimeter. The foam coatings within such a target could be made with a conventional foam, but because the entire thickness would contain as few as two or three cells it would look nonuniform. This is undesirable for physics applications that require homogeneous structural supports. For a given foam density, smaller celled foams have a larger interfacial area, a property useful in materials ranging from medical devices to catalyst supports.

• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 7279791
• Journal Information: CHEMTECH; (United States), Vol. 21:5; ISSN 0009-2703
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
FOAMS
COMMERCIALIZATION
DENSITY
MANUFACTURING
HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS
TARGETS
TEST FACILITIES
ICF DEVICES
POLYSTYRENE
CATALYST SUPPORTS
COATINGS
MICROSTRUCTURE
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SANDIA LABORATORIES
TRANSITION TEMPERATURE
COLLOIDS
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
DISPERSIONS
MATERIALS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC POLYMERS
PETROCHEMICALS
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PHYSICS
PLASTICS
POLYMERS
POLYOLEFINS
POLYVINYLS
SYNTHETIC MATERIALS
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES
US AEC
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
360601* - Other Materials- Preparation & Manufacture
360606 - Other Materials- Physical Properties- (1992-)
360602 - Other Materials- Structure & Phase Studies
290500 - Energy Planning & Policy- Research
Development
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& Commercialization