ABSTRACT
There are a number of polymeric materials that distinguish themselves from others by virtue of their
limited use, high prices, or very specific application or properties. The expression specialty polymer is,
however, slightly ambiguous to use for such materials as the definition covers any polymeric material that
does not have high volume use. There are thus some materials that were originally developed as
specialties have now become high volume commodities, while a number of materials developed some
years ago still fall into the specialty category. Some examples of the latter are polytetrafluoroethylene,
polydimethyl siloxane, poly(vinylidene fluoride), and engineering materials such as poly(phenylene
oxide), poly(phenylene sulfide) (PPS), polyether sulfone, polyether ether ketone, and polyetherimide.
