Preparation and characterization of low density poly 4-methyl-1-pentene foams for ICF

The preparation techniques for poly 4-methyl-1-pentene(TPX) foams in binary solvent system applied in ICF experiments have been improved through controlling the thermal history in preparation process. Beta radiation detecting and X-ray photographic technology were introduced to analyze the foam density in this system. The results of the two methods, which are consistent with each other, revealed that the optimized condition is to keep the cooling velocity in gelatin at 1 ℃/min and then quench it quickly. However, the pore size of super low density TPX foams prepared with this preparation techniques are very big, and the diameters of very few pores even reach hundreds of micron, so a single solvent system was used and the foams of lowest density 3 mg/cm3 for Z-pinch had been made. These fo