Published December 1990
This report is the sixth in a series of reports on high-temperature polymers. The report provides preliminary process designs and estimated capital and production costs for three polymers: polyarylate, polybenzimidazole and polyphenylene sulfide.
The polyarylate route includes the preparation of a bisphenol A diacetate intermediate, which is reacted with iso- and terephthalic acid to form the polymer. A significant amount of diphenyl ether is included in the reaction mixture and the polymerization can be considered either a solution polymerization or a modified melt polymerization. In the process for polybenzimidazole, 3,3',4,4'-tetraaminodiphenyl, an intermediate, is made, purified, and reacted with diphenyl isophthalate to form the polymer. The polyphenylene sulfide process in this report is similar to the process evaluated in PEP Report 86A except that the design in this report is for a process that is mainly batch, instead of continuous, and is based on more recent patents.
The report also includes reviews of the pertinent patents, a section on the industry status of the three polymers, and a section that briefly presents and discusses the basic chemistry entailed in the evaluated processes.
