Optical Silicon vs. PEEK
Optical silicon and PEEK belong to fundamentally different material chemistries. Optical silicon is a ceramic material, while PEEK is polymeric. 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 (20, in this case) are not shown.
For each property being compared, the top bar is optical silicon and the bottom bar is PEEK.
Metric UnitsUS Customary Units
Mechanical Properties
| Compressive (Crushing) Strength, MPa | 120 | |
| 120 to 300 |
| Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa | 150 | |
| 4.0 to 24 |
| Flexural Strength, MPa | 300 | |
| 150 to 330 |
| Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa | 110 | |
| 97 to 200 |
Thermal Properties
| Maximum Temperature: Mechanical, °C | 1350 | |
| 330 |
| Melting Onset (Solidus), °C | 1560 | |
| 340 |
| Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K | 700 | |
| 1390 to 1700 |
| Thermal Conductivity, W/m-K | 150 | |
| 0.25 to 0.93 |
| Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K | 3.0 | |
| 15 to 52 |
Otherwise Unclassified Properties
| Density, g/cm3 | 2.3 | |
| 1.3 to 1.5 |
Common Calculations
| Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points | 35 | |
| 1.5 to 10 |
| Stiffness to Weight: Bending, points | 75 | |
| 36 to 73 |
| Strength to Weight: Axial, points | 13 | |
| 20 to 41 |
| Strength to Weight: Bending, points | 22 | |
| 36 to 55 |
| Thermal Diffusivity, mm2/s | 93 | |
| 0.1 to 0.51 |
| Thermal Shock Resistance, points | 18 | |
| 34 to 57 |