PEEK vs. Zirconia
PEEK and zirconia belong to fundamentally different material chemistries. PEEK is a polymeric material, while zirconia is ceramic. Therefore, their performance will be even more dissimilar than would be suggested by the difference in properties. There are 16 material properties with values for both materials. Properties with values for just one material (19, in this case) are not shown. Please note that the two materials have significantly dissimilar densities. This means that additional care is required when interpreting the data, because some material properties are based on units of mass, while others are based on units of area or volume.
For each property being compared, the top bar is PEEK and the bottom bar is zirconia.
Metric UnitsUS Customary Units
Mechanical Properties
| Compressive (Crushing) Strength, MPa | 120 to 300 | |
| 1260 to 3080 |
| Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa | 4.0 to 24 | |
| 190 to 200 |
| Flexural Strength, MPa | 150 to 330 | |
| 630 to 970 |
| Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa | 97 to 200 | |
| 410 to 450 |
Thermal Properties
| Maximum Temperature: Mechanical, °C | 330 | |
| 500 to 1330 |
| Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K | 1390 to 1700 | |
| 400 to 510 |
| Thermal Conductivity, W/m-K | 0.25 to 0.93 | |
| 2.2 to 4.3 |
| Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K | 15 to 52 | |
| 8.8 to 9.5 |
Electrical Properties
| Electrical Resistivity Order of Magnitude, 10x Ω-m | 3.0 to 14 | |
| 4.5 to 11 |
Otherwise Unclassified Properties
| Density, g/cm3 | 1.3 to 1.5 | |
| 5.7 to 6.0 |
Common Calculations
| Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points | 1.5 to 10 | |
| 19 |
| Stiffness to Weight: Bending, points | 36 to 73 | |
| 33 to 34 |
| Strength to Weight: Axial, points | 20 to 41 | |
| 19 to 22 |
| Strength to Weight: Bending, points | 36 to 55 | |
| 21 to 23 |
| Thermal Diffusivity, mm2/s | 0.1 to 0.51 | |
| 0.73 to 1.8 |
| Thermal Shock Resistance, points | 34 to 57 | |
| 15 to 19 |