What is Teflon?

Teflon® is a household name and has become synonymous with non-stick cookware and other non-stick coatings. However, Teflon® is a brand name and registered trade mark that is owned by Chemours (formally DuPont). The brand encompasses a range of high performance materials that are not just used to coat cookware items. It is used in a wide range of consumer and industrial applications.

The most common association with the word Teflon® is PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene), although Teflon® is not just another name for PTFE. Teflon is not the name of a specific product or chemical. Over the years, the Teflon® brand has become so well known that it has established itself as a generic term for the substance, PTFE.

The origins of Teflon® date back to 1938, when Roy Plunkett was attempting to produce a new chlorofluorocarbon refrigerant. The substance was created accidentally, as a result of a failed experiment. When Plunkett investigated what had gone wrong, he discovered a very slippery, wax-like substance had formed inside a pressure bottle.

Plunkett had discovered PTFE – a fluorocarbon that is a white, waxy substance that is solid at room temperature. It is made up of carbon and fluorine (C2F4)n, with very strong bonds between the carbon and fluorine atoms. The Teflon® trademark was registered in 1945.

Inert to virtually all known chemicals and with an extremely low coefficient of friction, PTFE is a unique substance that is now used in countless applications, right across the domestic and industrial spectrum from saucepans to space shuttles.

PTFE is a vital component in many of the coatings that we offer. It can be applied as an almost pure topcoat, or blended with resins and pigments to give remarkable combinations of properties in countless industrial applications.

These are just some of the outstanding properties that can be achieved by the application of PTFE coatings: