Inspired by powder metallurgy

sintering molding method has been developed to processing polymers with extremetly high melt viscosity and low degradation temperature. The polymer sintering is generally carried out by powder melting and chain diffusion

and the sintering temperature is above the melting temperature of the polymers. In this review

sintering conditions and sintering mechanism involved in the sintering of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) are systematically introduced. Moreover

the application of the sintering technology in the fabrication of multifunctional materials are also discussed. Most importantly

in order to overcome the poor melt stability as well as serious degradation of stereocomplexed polylactide (SC-PLA) after complete melting

our research group proposed a novel low-temperature (lower than the melting temperature stereocomplex (SC) crystallite) sintering technology for SC-PLA. During the sintering process

the powdery SC-PLA particles are welded by the formation of new SC crystallite at the interface. The research progress are also highlighted.