Teflon^®

The linear long chain molecule “polytetrafluoroethylene”, was accidentally discovered by Dr. Roy Plunkett on April 6, 1938, at DuPont’s Jackson Laboratory in New Jersey. Plunkett was working with gases related to Freon^® refrigerants (also known as chlorofluorocarbons), another DuPont product. Upon checking a frozen, compressed sample of tetrafluoroethylene, he discovered that the sample had polymerized spontaneously into a white, waxy solid to form polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).⁶

The chemical formula is [C2F4] N. PTFE is a saturated aliphatic fluorocarbon. 

PTFE is inert to virtually all chemicals and is considered the most slippery material in existence. The coefficient of static and dynamic friction is nearly equal to the level of wet ice on wet ice. As a DuPont registered trademark Teflon^®, it has become a household name associated with its use as a coating on cookware and as a soil and stain repellant for fabrics and textile products. It does not absorb water, and is unaffected by acids, bases and solvents normal to industry at temperatures less than 500°F.

Various fillers can be added to PTFE to enhance certain characteristics, such as glass fiber (high wear resistance, good electrical, low friction), graphite (low friction, excellent chemical resistance, high creep resistance), carbon fiber (high wear resistance, high load resistance, high bend resistance), glass fiber and molybdenum disulfide (high wear resistance, low friction, high creep resistance), and bronze (high wear resistance, heat dissipation). In some industries, such as the bearing pad industry, filled PTFE has become the standard, where various percentages of glass fiber are added to the base PTFE resin to create an extremely tough, weatherproof, interface material that can be cut or stamped into configurations to match the dimensions of the opposing surfaces.⁷ PTFE is licensed to many manufacturing firms for a variety of material types. Solid film lubricants offer protection beyond the normal properties of most mineral and synthetic oil-based fluid lubricants. Conditions that warrant the use of these agents in a pure form, or as an additive, include extremes of temperature, pressure, chemical and environmental contamination.