He was working with gases related to Freon® refrigerants when he stumbled upon PTFE. Teflon is made from PFAS components to to say a fast food wrapper, for instance, is made from Teflon is incorrect. Access and use of the Teflon™ brand requires a trademark license from Chemours. By using ThoughtCo, you accept our, A Brief History of the Invention of Plastics, The Wheel and Other Timeless Classics Re-Invented, Plastic Architecture - Building The Biodome, Everything You Need to Know About Plastics, 20th Century Invention Timeline 1900 to 1949, Fabrics - The History of Fabrics and Different Fibers. The TFE was sent to DuPont’s Central Research Department. The U.S. followed with its own Teflon®-coated pan in 1861. Teflon™ nonstick coatings for cookware are based on PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene)—a high-performance fluoropolymer. Teflon® can be found just about everywhere these days: as a stain repellant in fabrics, carpets, and furniture, in automobile windshield wipers, hair products, lightbulbs, eyeglasses, electrical wires, and infrared decoy flares. Teflon is the registered trade name of the highly useful plastic material polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). The molecular weight of Teflon® can exceed 30 million, making it one of the largest molecules known to man. More information on Teflon™ nonstick coatings. Although some manufacturers use PFOA to make PTFE, Chemours has never used PFOA in the manufacture of Teflon™ nonstick coatings. Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is a synthetic fluoropolymer of tetrafluoroethylene that has numerous applications. Mary Bellis covered inventions and inventors for ThoughtCo for 18 years. The first non-stick pan using Teflon® was marketed in France as "Tefal" in 1954. No wonder Teflon® was chosen to be used on non-stick cooking pans, but it was originally used only for industrial and military purposes because it was so expensive to make. Teflon™ nonstick coatings for cookware and bakeware are made without PFOA/PFOS. Dr. Roy Plunkett discovered PTFE or polytetrafluoroethylene, the basis of Teflon®, in April 1938. PTFE was first marketed under the DuPont Teflon® trademark in 1945. Dr. Plunkett stayed with DuPont until his retirement in 1975. Creating PTFE involves 2 main phases and a series of reactions. Plunkett and his assistant, Jack Rebok, were charged with developing an alternative refrigerant and came up with tetrafluoroethylene or TFE. The Teflon® Trademark PTFE was first marketed under the DuPont Teflon® trademark in 1945. The chemical, also known as PFOS or PFOA, is what gave Teflon its non-stick properties. Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), a strong, tough, waxy, nonflammable synthetic resin produced by the polymerization of tetrafluoroethylene. Although some manufacturers use PFOA to make PTFE, Chemours has never used PFOA in the manufacture of Teflon™ nonstick coatings. Both 3M and DuPont were well aware of the health hazards associated with C8. Teflon™ is a trademark of The Chemours Company FC, LLC. It’s still the only known substance that a gecko's feet can't stick to. It was slippery, chemically stable and had a high melting point. Polytetrafluoroethylene, also known as Teflon®, is made with four ingredients -- fluorspar, hydrofluoric acid, chloroform, and water, which are combined in a chemical reaction chamber heated to between 1094-1652°F (590-900°C). The first non-stick pan using Teflon® was marketed in France as "Tefal" in 1954. We’re reimagining how we live, thanks to Teflon™ fluoropolymers. He died in 1994, but not before being inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame and the National Inventors’ Hall of Fame. It’s one of those discoveries that happened by accident. Cookware with Teflon™ nonstick coatings are manufactured using a liquid coating supplied by Chemours. They cut one open and found that the TFE had polymerized into a white, waxy powder; polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE resin. Known by such trademarks as Teflon, Fluon, Hostaflon, and Polyflon, PTFE is distinguished by its slippery surface, high melting point, and resistance to … The scientists there were instructed to experiment with the substance, and Teflon® was born. ©2020 The Chemours Company. Chemours was a spin-off from DuPont, which originally discovered the compound in 1938. Many common synthetic fibers are polymers, such as polyester and nylon. Chemours™ and the Chemours Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of The Chemours Company. The well-known brand name of PTFE-based formulas is Teflon by Chemours. Another popular brand name of PTFE is Syncolon by Synco Chemical Corporation. Ultimately, the challenge was taken out of his hands when he was promoted and sent to a different division. PTFE is one of a class of plastics known as fluoropolymers. No wonder Teflon® was chosen to be used on non-stick cooking pans, but it was originally used only for industrial and military purposes because it was so expensive to make. He began playing with it, attempting to find out if it would serve any useful purpose at all. Teflon™ nonstick coatings for cookware are based on PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene)—a high-performance fluoropolymer. PTFE has many unique properties, which make it valuable in scores of applications… Plunkett was an inveterate scientist. He had this new substance on his hands, but what to do with it? Like Teflon, a fast food wrapper is made from a PFAS configuration. Teflon is generally used on hard surfaces, other variations of PFAS are used on dental floss, waterproof clothing, pizza boxes. Find favorite recipes that use cookware with Teflon™ nonstick coatings. PTFE is the polymerized form of tetrafluoroethylene. In the cookware plant, this liquid coating is applied directly to the metal surface of the pan; sometimes two or three layers of coatings are applied. A polymer is a compound formed by a chemical reaction which combines particles into groups of repeating large molecules. ThoughtCo uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. Find the right resin, film, or coating for your industry and application. Plunkett held a Bachelor of Arts degree, a Master of Science degree, and his Ph.D. in organic chemistry when he went to work at the DuPont research laboratories in Edison, New Jersey. One of the key ingredients in DuPont’s Teflon was C8, a toxic, man-made chemical created by Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, better known as 3M, to make Scotchgard. The finished coating dries to a durable nonstick material that delivers the easy clean and nonstick performance that consumers expect from cookware with Teflon™ nonstick coatings. The surface is so slippery, virtually nothing sticks to it or is absorbed by it; the Guinness Book of World Records once listed it as the slipperiest substance on earth. They placed the TFE in small cylinders and froze them. As for those cooking pans, feel free to take a wire whisk or any other utensil to them – unlike in the old days, you won’t risk scratching the Teflon® coating because it's been improved. She is known for her independent films and documentaries, including one about Alexander Graham Bell. The pan bakes in a high-temperature oven to remove the liquid and to ensure that the coating adheres to the metal pan. Teflon™ nonstick coatings for cookware and bakeware are made without PFOA/PFOS. When they later checked on the refrigerant, they found the cylinders effectively empty, even though they felt heavy enough that they should still have been full. A colorless, odorless powder, it is a fluoroplastic with many properties that give it an increasingly wide range of uses. They ended up making about 100 pounds of TFE and were faced with the dilemma of storing it all.