Teflon - Lisa Regier

 

Every item in this photo contains Teflon. Gortex is found in running shoes and other products. Teflon coats many non-stick frying pans, as well as any material that needs to be waterproof, such as carpets and jackets. Spray cans of Teflon can even be bought, for making any item waterproof.

Welcome students, to your first online grade nine science class! Today we are discussing everyday chemistry. I was inspired this morning, while cooking my egg breakfast, and today we are learning about Teflon. Did you know that since the 1950’s Teflon has been used in non-stick frying pans?¹ But you have to be careful when cooking with a non-stick frying pan.

Overheating Teflon past 230°C can cause it to start to degrade, which causes harmful chemicals to be omitted, never mind the fact that any oil in the pan will be severely smoking at this point!^1,2 Teflon can easily scrap off pans as well, and you should try not to ingest it. But if you are worried about eating Teflon flakes, worry no more! The LD50 for Teflon is 1250 mg/kg, which means you would need to eat 1250 mg of Teflon, for every kg that you weight, before it can kill you.³ Say you are an average sized teenager, around 55 kg (that’s 120 Lbs..), you would need to eat almost 69 grams of Teflon to kill you!

One main misconception about Teflon is that it was invented by the NASA space program, to get the first American on the Moon.¹ In fact, this is wrong. In the 1930’s, a chemist named Roy Plunkett accidently discovered Teflon while he was working at DuPont.¹ The cylinder of CFC gas he was working with had not given out the correct mass of gas.¹ So he cut into the container and found a white, slippery substance. Turns out it was a new polymer that no one had ever seen before.¹

Teflon is a wonder chemical. It can be heated and cooled to extreme temperatures without affecting its performance.⁴ (So if you are planning on hiking to the top of Mount Everest, make sure to include a nice warm jacket with a Teflon coating, very little will affect the water resistant layer it creates.) Water does not wet Teflon.¹ Hot acids will not corrode Teflon.¹ It will not burn, even at 500°C.¹ Since it has so many amazing properties, Teflon is used in a wide variety of products. Including frying pans, waterproof coating for clothing, rugs, plumbers tape, tents, all navy military clothing, Gortex... and the list goes on.^1,2 Actually, every product, including the rug, in the photo above, contains Teflon.

So when you are talking to your friends, and they mention all the great things NASA has invented, you can tell them about how Teflon was made long before the first moon trip and was discovered by accident!