Polytetrafluoroethylene
polymer
Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is a synthetic fluoropolymer of tetrafluoroethylene, and has numerous applications because it is heat resistant and chemically inert. The commonly known brand name of PTFE-based composition is Teflon by Chemours, a spin-off from DuPont, which originally invented the compound in 1938.
Polytetrafluoroethylene is a fluorocarbon solid, as it is a high-molecular-weight polymer consisting wholly of carbon and fluorine. PTFE is hydrophobic: neither water nor water-containing substances wet PTFE, as fluorocarbons exhibit only small London dispersion forces due to the low electric polarizability of fluorine. PTFE has one of the lowest coefficients of friction of any solid.
Polytetrafluoroethylene is used as a non-stick coating for pans and other cookware. It is non-reactive, partly because of the strength of carbon–fluorine bonds, so it is often used in containers and pipework for reactive and corrosive chemicals. When used as a lubricant, PTFE reduces friction, wear, and energy consumption of machinery. It is used as a coating on catheters, and, in its expanded porous form (ePTFE), as a graft material in surgery and as an implant in cardiac and vascular reconstruction, hernia repair, and facial plastic surgery.
PTFE and chemicals used in its production are some of the best-known and widely applied per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are persistent organic pollutants.
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This entry incorporates text from “Polytetrafluoroethylene” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.