Supermicrocellular foamed materials

USRE37932E1 · kind E1 · reissue

Assignee

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology · US

Inventors

• Daniel F. Baldwin · Medford, US
• Nam P. Suh · Sudbury, US
• Chul B. Park · Mississauga, CA
• Sung W. Cha · Cambridge, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Aug 2, 1996
• Grant date: Dec 10, 2002
• Expiry date: Aug 2, 2016

Classification

• Technology area (CPC —): General

Abstract

A supermicrocellular foamed material and a method for producing such material, the material to be foamed such as a polymerplastic material, having a supercritical fluid, such as carbon dioxide in its supercritical state, introduced into the material to form a foamed fluid/material system having a plurality of cells distributed substantially throughout the material. Cell densities lying in a range from about 109 to about 1015 per cubic centimeter of the material can be achieved with the average cell sizes being at least less than 2.0 microns and preferably in a range from about 0.1 micron to about 1.0 micron.