When I was writing about PTFE on the page about polymerisation of alkenes, I spent ages trying to find out why PTFE was non-stick - and failed completely.
Part of the information I found on the web I know to be untrue or illogical, but there is a mass of stuff which, to be frank, I simply don't understand. Quite a lot of what is out there is written by physicists or other non-chemists who speak a quite different language from me! It also seems to me that there is a reluctance to start right back at the level of the molecules and explain what is happening in terms of molecular interactions.
Following a number of discussions with various knowledgeable people over recent years, what follows is, I hope, logical. Whether it is also the best explanation that can be given is another matter.
The structure of PTFE molecules
PTFE, poly(tetrafluoroethene), is made by polymerising lots of tetrafluoroethene molecules.
This simple diagram for PTFE doesn't show the 3-dimensional structure of the molecule. In the simpler molecule poly(ethene) the carbon backbone of the molecule just has hydrogen atoms attached to it, and the chain is very flexible - it definitely isn't a straight molecule.
However, in PTFE, the fluorine atoms in one CF2 group are big enough to interfere with those on the neighbouring groups. You need to remember that each fluorine atom will have 3 lone pairs sticking out from it.
The effect of this is to inhibit rotation about the carbon-carbon single bonds. The fluorine atoms will tend to line up so that they are as far apart as possible from neighbouring fluorines. Rotation will tend to involve a clash of lone pairs between fluorines on adjacent carbon atoms - and this makes rotation energetically unfavourable.
The repulsions lock the molecules into a rod-like shape with the fluorines arranged into very gentle spirals - a helical arrangement of the fluorines around the carbon backbone. The rods will then tend to pack together a bit like long thin pencils in a box.
This closely touching arrangement has an important effect on the intermolecular forces as you will see.
Note: Actually, this is a simplification. You will get some kinking in the chains especially as temperature is increased.
Intermolecular forces and the melting point of PTFE
The melting point of PTFE is quoted as 327°C. That's quite high for a polymer of this sort - so there must be sizeable van der Waals forces between the molecules.
But . . . several web sites talk about PTFE having very weak van der Waals forces. If it had very weak van der Waals forces, it would be a gas - not a fairly high melting point solid. So we have a problem here!
Why do people claim the van der Waals forces in PTFE are weak?
van der Waals dispersion forces are caused by temporary fluctuating dipoles set up as electrons in the molecules move around. Since PTFE molecules are large, you would expect the dispersion forces to be large as well, because there are a lot of electrons which can move.
It is generally the case that the bigger the molecule, the greater the dispersion forces.
However, there is a problem with PTFE. Fluorine is so electronegative that it tends to hold the electrons in the carbon-fluorine bonds closely to itself - so closely that the electrons are prevented from moving as much as you would expect. We describe the carbon-fluorine bonds as not being very polarisable.
van der Waals forces also include dipole-dipole interactions. But in PTFE each molecule is sheathed in a layer of slightly negative fluorine atoms. The only interactions possible between molecules in this case are repulsions!
So the dispersion forces are weaker than you might expect, and dipole-dipole interactions are going to tend to cause repulsion. It is no wonder that people claim that van der Waals forces are weak in PTFE. You don't actually get repulsion because the effect of the dispersion forces outweighs that of the dipole-dipole interactions, but the net effect is that the van der Waals forces will tend to be weak.
And yet PTFE has a high melting point, and so the forces holding the molecules together must be strong.
How can PTFE have a high melting point?
PTFE is very crystalline in the sense that there are large areas where the molecules are lying in a very regular arrangement. Remember that PTFE molecules can be thought of as long thin rods. These rods will pack very closely together.
That means that although PTFE molecules can't generate really big temporary dipoles, the dipoles that are produced can be used extremely effectively.
So are the van der Waals forces in PTFE weak or strong?
I think you could argue it both ways! If you had PTFE chains arranged in such a way that the chains didn't have much close contact, then the forces between them would be weak, and the melting point would be low.
But in the real world, the molecules are closely touching. The van der Waals forces may not be as strong as they could be, but the structure of the