Fluoropolymers were a “happy accident,” discovered in 1938 by Dr. Roy Plunkett, who had begun working in a DuPont laboratory on an unrelated task. For his first assignment, Plunkett was researching refrigerants, for which he had produced and stored one hundred pounds of tetrafluoroethylene (TFE) gas in small cylinders at dry-ice temperatures. When he returned to the cylinders to continue working on the TFE, what came out was not gas, but a white powder. Plunkett found the powder to be extremely heat resistant, highly chemically inert and amazingly slippery – nothing would stick to it. Plunkett had accidentally synthesized polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), the first fluoropolymer.

The first use of the product, trademarked Teflon® in 1945 by DuPont, was in military applications. Later, its remarkable qualities were put to use as a coating in the first nonstick pots, pans and bakeware, which enabled cooks to prepare heart-healthy meals with little or no cooking oils, and revolutionized baking – no more cake stuck to the bottom of the pan.

The ways in which fluoropolymers are used to improve the use and efficiency of numerous products have since become even more advanced, and PTFE has been joined by other types of fluoropolymers employed in hundreds of different applications – from semiconductor manufacturing, to automotive fuel transport to critical uses on NASA’s space shuttle, to name just a few. Today, the fluoropolymer industry is a global business, with a world market that relies on the products and their unique benefits.

As for Plunkett, his discovery was recognized by scientists all over the globe. He was inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame in 1973, and into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1985, where he shares honors with such luminaries as Thomas Edison and Louis Pasteur.