It is still challenging to fabricate polymer foams with bimodal structure via a simple technique in the both industrial and academic fields. In this work, by mixing polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) into thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and utilizing the difference of foaming dynamics between TPU and PDMS, the target foams with bimodal structures were successfully prepared through a one-step foaming process. It was shown that under the optimal conditions (i.e. PDMS content of 15 wt%, foaming temperature of 100 °C and foaming pressure of 13.8 MPa), the resultant foam possessed distinct bimodal structures with large cells of ~12 µm and small cells of ~3 µm. Such bimodal structures also help the forms to have the excellent compress strength and modulus of 506 kPa and 1618 kPa, which are much higher than the foam with uniform structure. In addition, bimodal structure foam has ~3 dB higher sound insulation than uniform structure foam.

在工业和学术领域通过简单的技术制造具有双峰结构的聚合物泡沫仍然具有挑战性。在这项工作中，通过将聚二甲基硅氧烷 (PDMS) 混合到热塑性聚氨酯 (TPU) 中，利用 TPU 和 PDMS 之间发泡动力学的差异，通过一步发泡工艺成功制备了具有双峰结构的目标泡沫。结果表明，在最佳条件下（即 PDMS 含量为 15 wt%，发泡温度为 100 °C，发泡压力为 13.8 MPa），所得泡沫具有独特的双峰结构，大泡孔为~12 µm，小泡孔为~ 3 微米。这种双峰结构也有助于模具具有506 kPa和1618 kPa的优异压缩强度和模量，远高于结构均匀的泡沫。此外，