The Unstickables

What is the opposite of adhesive? The word is abhesive, and it was coined by a scientist several years ago to describe something that refuses to let other material cling to it. The substance that inspired the word is a peculiar and promising product called Teflon, a slippery white plastic that feels something like a wet bar of soap.* Discovered in 1938 almost accidentally by Du Pont scientists who were working on fluorocarbon refrigerants, Teflon has other valuable properties: it will burn only when directly exposed to flame, is a superior electrical insulator and resists tears and impact.

At first, no one knew quite what to do with it. Since then Du Pont has spent $100 million to develop Teflon and similar substances, and so many uses have been found for Teflon that it has taken its place as one of the "miracle" products. American consumers were introduced to it only two years ago, when European companies that had mastered the technique of bonding Du Font's plastic to other materials began exporting Teflon-coated frying pans to the U.S. To the astonishment of U.S. housewives, eggs, meat, even cheese and pancakes, required no fat for frying and could quickly be removed from the pan without sticking.

U.S. companies have since begun making many cooking utensils with Teflon, but the material has moved far beyond the stove. Last week Du Pont announced that it will mass-produce thin, transparent Teflon film, the latest variety of the plastic, at a new Circleville, Ohio, plant, and will cut the base price from $10 to $9 per lb.

Electronics companies are making printed circuits out of Teflon, which can be sliced to one two-thousandths of an inch. Teflon is used in barbecue gloves that will not scorch, in missile nose cones and in fireproof suits. Ovens and muffin tins are coated with Teflon, and a coating of Teflon is applied to some electric irons to make them slide more easily across cloth. Auto bearings, bushings and ball joints are now being made of Teflon, and engineers look for the day when they can use it to eliminate car lubrication. Surgeons are using Teflon tubing successfully to replace artery sections. Steinway even turns out a piano with 1,130 Teflon bushings that replace conventional cloth, which shrinks, expands and eventually rots.

* The fluorine atoms in a molecule of Teflon form such a tightly bonded structure around the substance's carbon atoms that the molecules of other materials that touch Teflon have little opportunity to stick to it.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.