Patent 7931967 was granted and assigned to Kureha on April, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The invention provides a thermally foamable microsphere having a structure with a foaming agent encapsulated in a shell formed of a polymer, wherein the shell contains an organosilicon compound, and a process for producing a thermally foamable microsphere having a structure with a foaming agent encapsulated in a shell formed of a polymer by suspension polymerization of a polymerizable mixture containing at least a foaming agent and a polymerizable monomer in an aqueous dispersion medium, wherein the polymerizable mixture is suspension polymerized in the presence of the organosilicon compound.