Alumina vs. PFA
Alumina and PFA belong to fundamentally different material chemistries. Alumina is a ceramic material, while PFA is polymeric. Therefore, their performance will be even more dissimilar than would be suggested by the difference in properties. There are 14 material properties with values for both materials. Properties with values for just one material (19, in this case) are not shown.
For each property being compared, the top bar is alumina and the bottom bar is PFA.
Metric UnitsUS Customary Units
Mechanical Properties
| Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa | 210 to 290 | |
| 30 |
Thermal Properties
| Maximum Temperature: Mechanical, °C | 650 to 1730 | |
| 260 |
| Melting Onset (Solidus), °C | 2040 | |
| 300 |
| Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K | 870 to 940 | |
| 1000 |
| Thermal Conductivity, W/m-K | 14 to 30 | |
| 0.25 |
| Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K | 6.7 to 8.2 | |
| 120 |
Electrical Properties
| Dielectric Constant (Relative Permittivity) At 1 Hz | 8.0 to 9.0 | |
| 2.1 |
| Dielectric Constant (Relative Permittivity) At 1 MHz | 7.8 to 11 | |
| 2.6 |
| Dielectric Strength (Breakdown Potential), kV/mm | 8.9 to 12 | |
| 22 |
| Electrical Resistivity Order of Magnitude, 10x Ω-m | 6.2 to 14 | |
| 16 |
Otherwise Unclassified Properties
| Density, g/cm3 | 3.4 to 4.1 | |
| 2.2 |
Common Calculations
| Strength to Weight: Axial, points | 14 to 23 | |
| 3.9 |
| Strength to Weight: Bending, points | 19 to 28 | |
| 10 |
| Thermal Diffusivity, mm2/s | 3.7 to 10 | |
| 0.12 |