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The most significant property of poly-p-xylylene is its thermal stability. The crystalline melting point is 375-425°C and in an inert atmosphere the material is claimed to have a useful life of 10 years at 220°C. The thermal stability in air is not exceptional. Poly-p-xylylene also maintains useful properties at temperatures as low as - 200°C. The polymer has outstandingly good electrical insulation characteristics and is used as a dielectric in special capacitors.
It may be noted that poly-p-xylylene is considerably less stable than polyp- phenylene owing to the presence of the relatively weak dibenzyllinkages. It may also be noted that the isomeric polyxylylenes have been prepared but poly-o-xylylene has a polymer melt temperature of 110°C whilst poly-mxylylene has a softening temperature of only 60°C; these polymers are therefore of no immediate interest.

Poly-p-xylylene (PPX) is mainly used as protective coatings, e.g. in electronics, medical devices and paper products, or as sealing materials to prevent additives from leaking out of elastomers. PPX can also be used in micro-electro-mechanical systems, organic light-emitting diodes, or in biological and medical applications. A relatively new area of PPX research is the formation of reactive coatings. This can be achieved through the introduction of functional groups capable of reacting in a polymer-like reaction.

When di-p-xylylene is pyrolysed, both methylene bridges are homolytically cleaved to give the reactive intermediate p-xylylene which spontaneously forms the linear polymer on cooling. Generally, the polymer is deposited (in the polymerization chamber) on to a cold condenser and then removed as film; alternatively, the polymer is deposited directly on to an object which is required to be coated. Typically, an average molecular weight of about 500000 is attained.