At this time PTFE was extremely expensive

Can common how well be between a pan Tefal and the Centre Georges-Pompidou in Metz Answer: this Cookware flameware coating and the roof of the new showcase of lorraine culture are made from the same material, the Teflon. Become almost universal under the trade name, PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene) has demonstrated over the decades of exceptional properties. He was born but the failure of an experiment in a US laboratory, at the dawn of the second world war.

On the morning of April 6, 1938, Roy Plunkett, young chemist of 27 years entered in DuPont two years earlier, was about to continue his research on a new refrigerant, the Jackson Laboratory in New Jersey. He took in hand one of the 50 pressurized cylinders filled with gas tetrafluoroethylene (TFE) that he had left behind rest since the day before on the carbonic snow. But, to his surprise, nothing was in released when he opened it. After having returned and shaken, a small pile of coarse whitish powder spread on the ground. Intrigued, Dr. Plunkett and his assistant découpèrent cylinder and discovered that TFE had polymerized spontaneously during the night. The first reaction of the researcher will be one of the mortals: "and, grumbling, we will have to start all over again!

But heightened curiosity of the chemist will soon top on his disappointment. Determined to elucidate this mystery, he picked up the powder and the filed on its bench, immediately noticing something unusual: TFE is reacted to anything, any more than it would be dissolved in any medium, even in the most concentrated and aggressive acids. Aware that he had put his finger on a strange discovery, Roy Plunkett renewed immediately experience to verify that it could reproduce the same polymer. The strange substance was sent to the plastics Department of the chemical group for the purpose of further analysis, which confirmed the initial findings of the inventor: PTFE is soluble in virtually any solvent, is resistant to a temperature of 260 C and has exceptional anti-adhésion properties.

Convince the industrial

Marketed in 1945 by DuPont, Teflon can be found its first use in the military field project Manhattan, code name of the research program which resulted in the first atomic bomb. Only in this new polymer seals were indeed capable of withstanding very corrosive acid formed in the production of uranium U-235.

At this time, PTFE was extremely expensive. For evidence, the US Gasket Company in Camden, New Jersey, had filed the small amounts that it had been ordered to DuPont in the vault of a bank. Technicians of the company who needed to record their withdrawals before take the valuable material to the plant as if it were gold. But this new material did not immediately the DuPont fortune: it took first convince industry of its usefulness. To achieve this, the group will launch a marketing campaign similar to that which had powered the neoprene in the 1930s. With a comparable impact: sales of new polymer triplèrent between 1954 and 1960.

The first application of Teflon on frying dates back to 1951 in the United States. A client of the chemical group made coatings for this Cookware that he offered as a Christmas gift to friends and colleagues. In Europe, PTFE made its entry in the household universe through a French engineer Marc Grégoire, founder of the now famous Tefal brand, which is none other than the contraction of Teflon and aluminium in 1956.

Difficult to implement

To broaden its scope, DuPont give researchers well overcome technical obstacles, because the Teflon has the defects of his qualities. Not only was it difficult to cast, but its extraordinarily slippery surface made its accession to other materials very difficult. They succeeded to solve this problem by applying this new layer, and painting material. Chemical changes that led to a melting point lower and easier flow, PTFE has become easier to implement.

The development of these new polymers has paved the way for a myriad of applications in the automotive industry, electronics, aviation, space, medicine, photovoltaics and even architecture. The most unusual achievements include the roof of the Centre Georges-Pompidou in Metz or the Soccer City in Johannesburg stadium which, covered with a waterproof membrane in Teflon, are resistant to any weather condition. Or even the lens liquid miniature "arctic", automatic development, which is designed for mobile phone cameras, webcams, and barcode readers. And other applications will not fail to see the day: at the beginning of the year, DuPont has launched a new generation of anti-adherents coatings, distinguished by a greater resistance to the assaults, longevity and a much lower environmental impact.

Tomorrow: cinema 3 D