Polyphenylene sulfide is an engineering plastic, commonly used today as a high-performance thermoplastic.[3] PPS can be molded, extruded, or machined to tight tolerances. In its pure solid form, it may be opaque white to light tan in color. Maximum service temperature is 218 °C (424 °F). PPS has not been found to dissolve in any solvent at temperatures below approximately 200 °C (392 °F).[citation needed]
An easy way to identify the compound is by the metallic sound it makes when struck.
PPS is one of the most important high temperature thermoplastic polymers because it exhibits a number of desirable properties. These properties include resistance to heat, acids, alkalies, mildew, bleaches, aging, sunlight, and abrasion. It absorbs only small amounts of solvents and resists dyeing.
The Federal Trade Commission definition for sulfur fiber is "A manufactured fiber in which the fiber-forming substance is a long chain synthetic polysulfide in which at least 85% of the sulfide (–S–) linkages are attached directly to two (2) aromatic rings." The generic name for this synthetic fiber is Sulfar.[6]
The process for commercially producing this material was initially developed by Dr. H. Wayne Hill Jr. and James T. Edmonds at Phillips Petroleum.[7]N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) is used as the reaction solvent because it is stable at the high temperatures required for the synthesis and it dissolves both the sulfiding agent and the oligomeric intermediates.
Linear, high-molecular-weight PPS that is capable of being extruded into film or melt spun into fiber was invented by Robert W. Campbell.[8]
The first U.S. commercial sulfur fiber was produced in 1983 by Phillips Fibers Corporation, a subsidiary of Phillips 66.[2]
^ abDavid Parker, Jan Bussink, Hendrik T. van de Grampel, Gary W. Wheatley, Ernst-Ulrich Dorf, Edgar Ostlinning, Klaus Reinking, "Polymers, High-Temperature" in Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry 2002, Wiley-VCH: Weinheim. doi:10.1002/14356007.a21_449
^H Wayne Hill Jr., James T. Edmonds, to the Phillips Petroleum Company Research Center (Bartlesville, Oklahoma, US). Patent 3,354,129, 1963. issued November 21, 1967
^Robert W. Campbell to the Phillips Petroleum Company Research Center (Bartlesville, Oklahoma, US). Patent 3,919,177, 1974 issued November 11, 1975