Fluoropolymer
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A fluoropolymer is a polymer that contains atoms of fluorine. They are characterized by an unusually high resistance to solvents, acids, and bases.
Fluoropolymers were discovered serendipitously in 1938 by Dr. Roy J. Plunkett. He was working on freon (for the DuPont corporation) and accidentally polymerized tetrafluoroethylene. The result was PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene), more commonly known as Teflon. This material had the lowest coefficient of friction of any known solid and was inert to virtually all chemicals.
Examples of fluoropolymers:
- PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene, Teflon)
- PFA (perfluoroalkoxy polymer resin, also known as Teflon)
- FEP (fluorinated ethylene-propylene, also known as Teflon)
- ETFE (Tefzel), (Fluon)
- ECTFE (Halar)
- PVDF (Kynar)
- PCTFE (Kel-F)
- TFE (trifluoroethanol)
- FPM
- CTFE
- FFKM (Kalrez, Tecnoflon FFKM)
- FKM (Viton, Tecnoflon)
Fluoropolymers may be mechanically characterized as thermosets or thermoplastics.
[edit] See also
- Perfluorocarbon (PFC)
[edit] External Links
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