Teflon

Lexi Carroll
STEM Seminar
Tokoly

Roy J. Plunkett

A young chemist working at the

Du Pont Company
April 1938, he was working on
making a nontoxic refrigerant
He planned to work with
tetrafluoroethylene, a gas
When he opened the container
all he found was a white waxy
powder;polytetrafluorethylene
The gas had polymerized

Properties of Polytetrafluoroethylene
Resistance to strong acids and bases
Resistant to heat
Cannot not be dissolved
Very slippery

Used in World War II

Needed a material that would
be resistant to corrosive
gases and uranium
hexafluoride when building
the gaskets and valves for
the atomic bombs
Teflon was very expensive

Teflon in Cookware
1960- Teflon coated pots and
pans are introduced to the
market
Difficult to bond teflon to
the metal surfaces of
cookware
Easily scratched of
1986- Teflon pots and pans
twice as durable were being
manufactured

Teflon in Engineering
Is used for
Outer layer of space suits
Insulating material for
electrical wires
Fuel tanks and nose cones of rockets

Teflon in Healthcare
Teflon is not rejected by the human body and has
been used to make:
Pacemakers
Artificial bones and tendons
Heart valves
Dentures

Plunketts Recognition
Inducted into the Plastics Hall of
Fame and the National
Inventors Hall of Fame
Receives letters from the millions
of people who are alive thanks
to telfon aortas and
pacemakers

What helps me to be
creative?
Listening to music
Going for long drives
Sharing ideas with friends and classmates
Being outside

Bibliography
Roberts, Royston M. "Teflon Out of the Atomic Bomb and
into the Frying Pan." Serendipity: Accidental Discoveries in
Science. New York: Wiley, 1989. 187-91. Print.