Discovery
True to the discovery pattern of so many great inventions, PTFE burst upon the scene quite by
accident. In 1938 a DuPont chemist, Mr. Roy J. Plunkett, was working on the development of a
new refrigerant when he discovered
“polytetrafluoroethylene,” shortened to PTFE and often more descriptively
referred to as PTFE resins. Upon examination, DuPont learned that
PTFE provided a combination of friction, temperature, chemical, mechanical
and electrical resisting properties unmatched by any other material,
and registered the Teflon® trademark.1
Promise
Plunkett had struck gold. Tough and weather resistant, PTFE immediately
showed promise; a promise that would culminate in recognition as the
slickest substance known to man.
Guiness
This “slickest substance” phenomenon is recorded in The Guiness Book of World Records. In the
PHYSICAL EXTREMES section under the heading Lowest Friction it declares, “The lowest coefficient
of static and dynamic friction of any solid is 0.02, in the case of polytetrafluoroethylene
([C2F4]n), called PTFE - equivalent to wet ice on wet ice.”2
War
As with many technological efforts during the early 1940s, initial production of PTFE was directed
toward the demands of