PTFE Properties: A Look inside DuPont's Teflon

PTFE Properties: A Look inside DuPont's Teflon

Teflon revolutionized the way we cook. Well, revolutionized the way we clean up, at least. Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. But, in all seriousness, polytetrafluoroethylene(PTFE), commonly known as Teflon, did make cooking and cleaning much easier.

Before non-stick pans, cooks had to load up pans with oil or butter, as well as keep close eye on their food. It's not easy flipping an omelet when it's fused to the bottom of the pan. Furthermore, after the food was cooked, whoever cleaned the pan had a real task in front of them. Anyone who's used a non-stick pan knows the aggravation of scraping the bottom of a food-encrusted pan. It requires a special mixture of hot water, dish soap, and some elbow grease.

However, non-stick pans only scrape the surface of PTFE properties. So, let's try and look beyond the bottom of cookware.

Dr. Roy Plunkett accidentally discovered PTFE in 1938 while attempting to make a new CFC refrigerant. Plunkett and his assistant, Jack Rebok, checked on a 100-pound container of tetrafluoroethylene (TFE) gas, and found one of the cylinders had not discharge when they opened the valve. Although the cylinder seemed empty, they found it had the same mass when they weighed it. Plunkett and Rebok opened the cylinder and found that the gas had solidified into a white powder. Naturally, Plunkett was inclined to test the properties of the solid. He found it that it was slippery, chemically inert, and had a very high melting point. Scientifically speaking, TFE had polymerized into polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).

PTFE's high melting point, 327C (621F), combined with its low friction, makes it an ideal property when dealing with corrosive materials, as well as any application where sliding action is needed: plain bearings, gears, slide plates, etc. Furthermore, PTFE has excellent dielectric properties, especially at high radio frequencies, making it suitable for use as an insulator in cables and connector assemblies.

So, while on the surface, the non-stick pan seems like a simple invention on the surface, it's actually much more complex. The same material that provides this convenience was also been used in the Manhattan Project. Undoubtedly, the properties of PTFE have made it a spectacular accidental discovery.

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