The present application offers a solution to the current problems associated with recovery and recycling of precious metals such as gold and copper from scrap material, discarded articles, and other items. The solution is premised on a microporous chelating polymeric membrane comprising a poly-thiosemicarbazide formed from N,N-diaminopiperazine and a suitable reactant such as diisothiocyanate; the membrane may be formed through the use of a solvent system and non-solvent system. The membrane may be used to separate metal ions from solutions and incorporated in a membrane module.

A polymer of hyaluronic acid modified by the grafting thereto of at least one of the functions SO.sub.3 and aromatic rings may be used as dopant for a polymer formed from one or monomers chosen from EDOT, ProDOT, and derivatives thereof. An aqueous suspension, or ink, and materials, in particular hydrogels, based on at least one PEDOT and/or PProDOT polymer may be doped by at least one such modified hyaluronic acid polymer. Such modified hyaluronic acid polymers may be used in bioelectronic or biosensor devices.

The present application offers a solution to the current problems associated with recovery and recycling of precious metals from scrap material, discard articles, and other items comprising one or more precious metals. The solution is premised on a microporous chelating polymeric membrane. Embodiments include, but are not limited to, microporous chelating polymeric membranes, device comprising the membranes, and methods of using and making the same.

The present disclosure relates to compositions containing a) at least one thermoplastic polymer, b) at least one small molecule organic salt, and c) at least one water-soluble or water-dispersible polymer, including processes for the use thereof for the production of polymer particles of sub-micron size.

Composite materials including cellulose nanocrystals incorporated into a polymer aerogel scaffold, wherein the cellulose nanocrystals serve as a reinforcement agent to result in the formation of less dense aerogels, improve the tensile mechanical properties of aerogel films, and reduce aerogel shrinkage upon thermal exposure. After gelation, the gel is dried via a suitable method such as supercritical CO.sub.2 extraction, freeze drying or other method, to produce the CNC/polymer composite aerogel. Properties of the composite aerogel can be tailored via surface modification of the cellulose nanocrystals as well as through the backbone structure of the polymer.

The present invention relates to composites comprising rigid-rod polymers and graphene nanoparticles, processes for the preparation thereof, nanocomposite films and fibers comprising such composites and articles containing such nanocomposite films and fibers.

Provided is a method of producing an amine adduct of a conductive composite, including: adding an amine compound to a conductive polymer dispersion liquid which contains water and a conductive composite containing a conjugated conductive polymer and a polyanion at a mass ratio of the conjugated conductive polymer to the polyanion of 1:3 to 1:7.5 to precipitate an amine adduct of the conductive composite.

Condensation of fluoro-substituted and silyl-substituted monomers provides polymers suitable for use, e.g., as engineering polymers. A monomer composition is condensed in the presence of a basic catalyst. The monomer composition contains a compound of formula FXF and a compound of formula (R.sup.1).sub.3SiZSi(R.sup.1).sub.3, and forms an alternating XZ polymer chain and a silyl fluoride byproduct. X has the formula -A(R.sup.2-A)n-; each A is SO.sub.2, C(O), or Het; R.sup.2 is an organic moiety; n is 0 or 1; Het is an aromatic nitrogen heterocycle; Z has the formula -L-R.sup.3-L; each L is O, S, or N(R.sup.4); and each R.sup.3 is an organic moiety, and R.sup.4 comprises H or an organic moiety.

A method of processing a water-dispersible, polymer-based material in a bath of a water-based solution includes providing a molten water-dispersible polymer material having monovalent cations. The water-dispersible polymer is introduced into a water bath comprising multivalent salt dissociated in the water bath into multivalent cations and anions. The water-dispersible polymer is retained within the water bath with the dissociated multivalent cations to quench the water-dispersible, polymer-based material while the monovalent cations proximate a surface of the water-dispersible polymer are exchanged with multivalent cations to form a barrier that temporarily resists dispersion of the water-dispersible, polymer-based material within the water bath. The method includes removing the water-dispersible polymer from water bath after the exchange step.

Proposed are a dodecyl sulfate-doped PEDOT film and a manufacturing method therefor, the method including: coating, on a substrate, an oxidizing agent film including a dodecyl sulfate metal salt such as Fe(DS).sub.3; and forming a PEDOT film by vapor phase polymerization. The dodecyl sulfate-doped PEDOT film according to the present disclosure has excellent electrical conductivity so as to be capable of replacing a metal, and has excellent mechanical durability, light transmittance, and aqueous solution stability.