We report a facile approach to produce lightweight microcellular polyetherimide (PEI)/graphene nanocomposite foams with a density of about 0.3 g/cm3 by a phase separation process. It was observed that the strong extensional flow generated during cell growth induced the enrichment and orientation of graphene on cell walls. This action decreased the electrical conductivity percolation from 0.21 vol % for PEI/graphene nanocomposite to 0.18 vol % for PEI/graphene foam. Furthermore, the foaming process significantly increased the specific electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness from 17 to 44 dB/(g/cm3). In addition, PEI/graphene nanocomposite foams possessed low thermal conductivity of 0.065-0.037 W/m·K even at 200 °C and high Young's modulus of 180-290 MPa.

Novel high-performance polyetherimide (PEI)/graphene@Fe3O4 (G@Fe3O4) composite foams with flexible character and low density of about 0.28-0.4 g/cm(3) have been developed by using a phase separation method. The obtained PEI/G@Fe3O4 foam with G@Fe3O4 loading of 10 wt % exhibited excellent specific EMI shielding effectiveness (EMI SE) of ~41.5 dB/(g/cm(3)) at 8-12 GHz. Moreover, most the applied microwave was verified to be absorbed rather than being reflected back, resulting from the improved impedance matching, electromagnetic wave attenuation, as well as multiple reflections. Meanwhile, the resulting foams also possessed a superparamagnetic behavior and low thermal conductiviy of 0.042-0.071 W/(m K). This technique is fast, highly reproducible, and scalable, which may facilitate the commercialization of such composite foams and generalize the use of them as EMI shielding materials in the fields of spacecraft and aircraft.

The preparation of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) foam with a well-defined cell structure, high crystallinity, a high expansion ratio, and good mechanical properties is critical to its broader applications. However, achieving these properties in PLA foam simultaneously is challenging, because high crystallinity generally results in nonuniform cell nucleation and suppresses cell growth in the case of solid-state foaming. This study presents a novel approach using ultrasonic irradiation (UI) to achieve the desired properties in PLA simultaneously. As expected, CO2-saturated PLA samples at 5 MPa have a high crystallinity (23.4%), and foamed PLA samples at various foaming temperatures exhibit low foam expansion and nonuniform cell structure. By introducing UI at the very start of the foaming, however, the resultant PLA foams presented a significant and concurrent increase in cell structure uniformity and cell density: cell density increased about 2 orders of magnitude, the expansion ratio increased 1–2 times, the elongation at break increased 2 times, and the specific tensile strength increased 1.1 times, compared to samples without UI. Further investigation indicated that the enhanced cell nucleation induced by UI was the main reason for this unique phenomenon. Our study provides a simple but efficient and cost-effective method to fabricate PLA foams that possess excellent mechanical properties.

Microcellular structure endows polymeric foams with the improved mechanical properties, but the preparation of lightweight microcellular polyimide (PI) foams with a large size is challenging and inefficient, because of low gas solubility, high stiffness, and an extremely long saturation time. In this study, PI foam was prepared by solid-state microcellular foaming technology with the compressed CO2 as a physical blowing agent and tetrahydrofuran as coblowing agent. The presence of coblowing agent was verified to increase the gas sorption of PI, causing a dramatic increase in the expansion ratio of microcellular PI beads from 2.9 to 15.7. Using a novel compression molding process, the prepared PI foams were molded into the 3-D shaped products. Before the molding, the foamed PI beads were coated by poly(ether imide) (PEI)/chloroform solution. The contact angle tests indicated that PEI/chloroform could infiltrate well PI foams’ surface, which facilitated the formation of strong interbead bonding between bead foams. The thickness of the coated PEI layer and the interbead bonding regions were the important parameters to adjust the bending and compression properties of the molded PI foam (MPI) product. The experimental results indicated that the bending strength and compression strength (at 10% strain) of MPI sample with density of 137.7 kg/m3 were 1.27 and 1.59 MPa, respectively.

The preparation of lightweight materials with electromagnetic interference-shielding effectiveness higher than 30 dB is critical for most industrial and consumer applications. Compounding polymer resin with conductive filler can generate excellent electromagnetic interference-shielding effectiveness but usually leads to a high-sample density, while the foaming of polymer composite suffers from the significant-reduced electromagnetic interference-shielding effectiveness. In this study, polyetherimide composite foams with loading of 10-80 phr (parts per hundred of resins) nickel particles were fabricated to meet the gap. The polyetherimide/nickel composite foams possessed uniform cell structure and lowsample density such as 0.86 g/cm 3 at 70 phr nickel. The coupling effects of gravity settlement and cell-structure solidification led to the formation of gradient distribution of nickel particles across the foams. The formed novel structure facilitated the enhancement of multi-reflection and multi-scattering among nickel particles and cells. As a consequence, polyetherimide/nickel foam with 70 phr nickel (PEIN70) possessed a high-electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness of 86.7-106.5 dB over a frequency range of 50-3000 Downloaded fromMHz. When the sample density was considered, the specific electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness of PEIN70 foam was as high as 121.3 dB/(g/cm 3 ) at 1 GHz, which was higher than the reported electromagnetic interference-shielding materials. The excellent electromagnetic interference-shielding properties, lightweight, well-defined resin properties ensure polyetherimide/nickel composite foams useful in many advanced applications.

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