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Poly(ether ether ketone) (PEEK) is high performance semicrystalline thermoplastic with a glass transition temperature of 143°C. The melting point (Tm) is quoted as 334°C. Because of its high thermal transitions, PEEK, requires high temperatures for processing, at least 370–400°C. It has been determined that under the recommended processing conditions PEEK can undergo branching and eventually crosslinks. An alternative to melt processing PEEK is to apply the powder metallurgy technique of sintering. This involves cold (room temperature) compaction of the polymeric powder, followed by pressure free sintering of the resultant green body. We have reported a process for preparing submicron PEEK particles, and the focus here is on the free sintering of these particles with emphsis on the effects of particle size, sintering temperature, and compaction pressure. The data is evaluated using the two particle model developed by Frenkel as well as the crack healing theory developed by Wool.

Novel abrasion resistant coatings have been successfully prepared by the sol-gel method. These materials are spin coated onto bisphenol-A polycarbonate, diallyl diglycol carbonate resin (CR-39) sheet, aluminum, and steel substrates and are thermally cured to obtain a transparent coating of a few microns in thickness. Following the curing, the abrasion resistance is measured and compared with an uncoated control. It was found that these hybrid organic/inorganic networks partially afford excellent abrasion resistance to the polycarbonate substrates investigated. In addition to having excellent abrasion resistance comparable to current commercial coatings, some newly developed systems are also UV resistant. Similar coating formulations applied to metals can greatly improve the abrasion resistance despite the fact that the coatings are lower in density than their substrates.

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