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Plexiglass, also known as "Plexiglas" or by its chemical name, polymethyl methacrylate, was a strong, transparent polymer plastic used for viewing barriers like windows and aquarium tanks. It was the immediate predecessor to transparent aluminum.

Plexiglas is a Genericized trademark commonly used to refer to the material or similar variants.

In the Earth city of San Francisco, the company known as Plexicorp was well-known for its output of plexiglass. In 1986, Montgomery Scott and Leonard McCoy from the 23rd century gave Plexicorp manager Dr. Nichols the plans for transparent aluminum in exchange for a pane of the plexiglass, which they required to build a whale tank capable of holding two humpback whales.

Hikaru Sulu used a Huey 204 to transport the panes of plexiglass across San Francisco to the waiting Klingon Bird-of-Prey, aboard which the tank was to be constructed.

Although there was some doubt, the plexiglass tank was able to withhold the pressure of the tons of water transported to the ship along with the whales. With the whales secure in the plexiglass tank, the Bird-of-Prey returned to the future to release them into Earth's ocean, thus giving them a chance to repopulate their species. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)

In the final draft script of ENT: "Anomaly (ENT)", Plexiglass was cited as the material which the inner door in the brig aboard Enterprise NX-01 was intended to be constructed from. Similarly, in the final draft script of ENT: "Similitude", Plexiglass was also cited as the material used for a tank holding a Lyssarian Desert Larvae and a birthing tank holding a Human-looking mimetic simbiot fetus that the larvae develops into. In the final draft script of ENT: "Carpenter Street", the Xindi bio-weapon was described as having a "Plexiglass mid-section". A visor Phlox wears in ENT: "Hatchery" was also scripted, in the final draft of that episode's teleplay, to be made of Plexiglass. Yet another use of the material was scripted to have been for an area of a Xindi-Aquatic cruiser which, at one point in ENT: "Damage", contains Archer.

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