A sound absorption material composed of polymer microparticles and polyurethane (PU) foam with certain geometry cavum has been developed. Its soundabsorbing characteristic was investigated in the impedance tube, according to transfer function method. Measurements show that polymer microparticles have remarkable effect on the absorption performance of the composite material because of their microstructures and features. Several models established for acoustic properties have been adopted to fit the experimental data. The results show that these models fail to predict accurately the acoustic properties of the materials. The sound energy attenuation in polymer microparticles material may most likely consist of two parts, viscous attenuation of air inside the pores and the friction energy caused by the oscillation of polymer particles. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.