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Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most common plastic in use today. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging (plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including bottles, etc.). As of 2017, over 100 million tonnes of polyethylene resins are being produced annually, accounting for 34% of the total plastics market.

Many kinds of polyethylene are known, with most having the chemical formula (C2H4)n. PE is usually a mixture of similar polymers of ethylene, with various values of n. It can be low-density or high-density: low-density polyethylene is extruded using high pressure (1000–5000 atm) and high temperature (520 kelvins), while high-density polyethylene is extruded using low pressure (6–7 atm) and low temperature (333–343 K). Polyethylene is usually thermoplastic, but it can be modified to become thermosetting instead, for example, in cross-linked polyethylene.

 

Note:   The above text is excerpted from the Wikipedia article Polyethylene, which has been released under the GNU Free Documentation License.