High-performance plastics

High-performance plastics are plastics that meet higher requirements than standard or engineering plastics. They are more expensive and used in smaller amounts.

High performance plastics differ from standard plastics and engineering plastics primarily by their temperature stability, but also by their chemical resistance and mechanical properties, production quantity, and price.

There are many synonyms for the term high-performance plastics, such as: high temperature plastics, high-performance polymers, high performance thermoplastics or high-tech plastics. The name high temperature plastics is in use due to their continuous service temperature (CST), which is always higher than 150 °C by definition (although this is not their only feature, as it can be seen above).

It is often spoken of polymers instead of plastics, since both terms are synonyms in the engineering-use. If the term high-performance thermoplastics is used, it is because both the standard and technical as well as high-performance plastics are always thermoplastics. Thermosets and elastomers are outside of this classification and form their own classes.

However, the differentiation from less powerful plastics has varied over time; while nylon and poly(ethen terephthalate) were initially considered powerful plastics, they are now ordinary.

The improvement of mechanical properties and thermal stability is and has always been an important goal in the research of new plastics. Since the early 1960s, the development of high-performance plastics has been driven by corresponding needs in the aerospace and nuclear technology. Synthetic routes for example for PPS, PES and PSU were developed in the 1960s by Philips, ICI and Union Carbide. The market entry took place in the early 70s. A production of PEEK (ICI), PEK (ICI) and PEI (General Electric and GE) via polycondensation was developed in the 1970s. PEK was offered since 1972 by Raychem, however, made by an electrophilic synthesis. Since electrophilic synthesis has in general the disadvantage of a low selectivity to linear polymers and is using aggressive reactants, the product could hold only a short time on the market. For this reason, the majority of high-performance plastics is nowadays produced by polycondensation processes.

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