Polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) (Poly(ethylene 2,6-naphthalate) is a polyester

Polyester

Polyester is a category of polymers which contain the ester functional group in their main chain. Although there are many polyesters, the term "polyester" as a specific material most commonly refers to polyethylene terephthalate...

 with good barrier properties (even better than Polyethylene terephthalate

Polyethylene terephthalate

Polyethylene terephthalate , commonly abbreviated PET, PETE, or the obsolete PETP or PET-P, is a thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used in synthetic fibers; beverage, food and other liquid containers; thermoforming applications; and engineering resins often in combination...

). Because it provides a very good oxygen barrier, it is particularly well-suited for bottling beverages that are susceptible to oxidation, such as beer

Beer

Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...

. It is also used in making high performance sailcloth

Sailcloth

Sails have been made from cloth for all of recorded history. Typically sails were made from flax , hemp or cotton in various forms including canvas. However, modern sails are rarely made from natural fibers. Most sails are made from synthetic fibers ranging from low-cost nylon or polyester to...

. It also has been found to show supreme scintillation properties and is expected to replace classic plastic scintillator

Scintillator

A scintillator is a special material, which exhibits scintillation—the property of luminescence when excited by ionizing radiation. Luminescent materials, when struck by an incoming particle, absorb its energy and scintillate, i.e., reemit the absorbed energy in the form of light...

s.

Production

Polyethylene Naphthalate (PEN, Poly(ethylene-2,6-naphthalene dicarboxylate, CAS No: 25853-85-4)
is a polyester polymer of Naphthalene Dicarboxilate and Ethylene Glycol.

There are two major manufacturing routes for PEN, i.e. an ester or an acid process, named according
to whether the starting monomer is a diester or a diacid of naphthalene, respectively. In both cases
for PEN, the glycol monomer is Ethylene Glycol.

Solid-state polymerization (SSP) of the melt-produced resin pellets is the preferred process to
upgrade the molecular weight of PEN.

Applications

Significant commercial markets have been developed for its application in textile and industrial fibers, films, and foamed articles, containers for carbonated beverages, water and other liquids, and thermoformed applications.

Benefits when compared to PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate)

The two condensed aromatic rings of PEN confer on it improvements in strength and modulus, chemical and hydrolytic resistance, gaseous barrier, thermal and thermo-oxidative resistance and ultraviolet (UV) light barrier resistance compared to PET.

PEN is also the medium for Advanced Photo System

Advanced Photo System

Advanced Photo System is a film format for still photography first produced in 1996. It was marketed by Eastman Kodak under the brand name Advantix, by FujiFilm under the name Nexia, by AgfaPhoto under the name Futura and by Konica as Centuria.- Design :The film is 24 mm wide, and has three...

 film.

PEN is also used for manufacturing high performance fibers that have very high modulus and better dimensional stability than Polyester or Nylon fibers.

PEN is used as the substrate for some LTO tape cartridges.

PEN is being used as a substrate for flexible integrated circuits.

It is prepared from ethylene glycol

Ethylene glycol

Ethylene glycol is an organic compound widely used as an automotive antifreeze and a precursor to polymers. In its pure form, it is an odorless, colorless, syrupy, sweet-tasting liquid...

 and one or more naphthalene

Naphthalene

Naphthalene is an organic compound with formula . It is a white crystalline solid with a characteristic odor that is detectable at concentrations as low as 0.08 ppm by mass. As an aromatic hydrocarbon, naphthalene's structure consists of a fused pair of benzene rings...

 dicarboxylic acid

Dicarboxylic acid

Dicarboxylic acids are organic compounds that contain two carboxylic acid functional groups. In molecular formulae for dicarboxylic acids, these groups are often written as HOOC-R-COOH, where R may be an alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, or aryl group...

s by condensation polymerization.

External links

Advansa Sasa Polyester San A.S. http://www.sasa.com.tr/en/U_PResi_AP_PHC.asp

DuPont Teijin Films TEONEX Q83 Data sheet http://www.dupontteijinfilms.com/FilmEnterprise/Datasheet.asp?Result=Print&ID=522&Version=US