Mississippi Polymer Technologies

Solvay further boosted its polymer portfolio in January 2006 with the acquisition of Mississippi Polymer Technologies a start-up company whose main attraction is the PARMAX family of melt-processable, transparent, amorphous, rigid-rod thermoplastics which are claimed to exhibit a unique combination of strength, stiffness and hardness. The chemical resistance of PARMAX is claimed to be comparable with semi-crystalline materials and to be unsurpassed by any other transparent polymer. 

Poylphenylenes were originally developed by Maxdem in California and subsequently by Mississippi Polymer Technologies (MPT). More recently MPT was bought by Solvay and the product is now sold under the trade name of Primospire. A pure paraphenylene would lack processability and so has to be substituted with phenylketone and/or copolymerised with unsubstituted metaphenylene [4-6]. In this way it is possible to produce both extrusion and injection... 

SRP can be processed by using standard melt processing techniques. The polymer is soluble in common solvents and can be cast into films and coatings. In addition, machinable stock plastic shapes are available. In 2003 Mississippi Polymer Technologies (MPT) introduced modified poly(p-phenylene) under the Parmax trade name [62]. In 2006 Solvay Advanced Polymers acquired MPT and offers amorphous para-phenylene copolymers under the Primo-Spire trademark. 

Department of Chemistry and Volen Center for Complex Systems, MS 015, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS 39406 Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Matsugasaki, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8585, Japan... 

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