Teflon

Teflon®, a registered trademark of the DuPont corporation. Discovered by Roy J. Plunkett (1910-1994) in 1938 and introduced as a commercial product in 1949.

There are two (or more?) types of Teflon. First TEFLON TFE = Tetrafluorethylene The unpolymerized Teflon looks like this:

   F   F
   |   |
   C = C 
   |   |
   F   F

Basically, Teflon is polymerized fluoridezed ethene, polytetrafluoroethene (PTFE).

   F   F
   |   |
R - C - C - R
   |   |
   F   F

Teflon is also used as the trade name for a polymer with similar properties, perfluoroalkoxy polymer resin (PFA):

   F   F   F   F 
   |   |   |   |
R - C - C - C - C - R
   |   |   |   |
   F   F   F   O
               |
           F - C - F
               |
               F

Teflon is the plastic with the lowest coefficient of friction. It is also used as a non-stick coating for pans and other cookware. Teflon is very unreactive, and so is often used in containers and pipework for reactive chemicals. The melting point is 327 °C.

Teflon is the most common example given of a spin-off from the US Space industry with more down-to-earth applications, even though it was discovered in 1938 and first sold commercially in 1946.

Teflon has been supplemented with another DuPont product, Silverstone, a three-coat fluoropolymer system that produces a more durable finish than Teflon. Silverstone was released in 1976.

External link

DuPont's History of Teflon page