Teflon was discovered by accident by Dr.
Roy Plunkett at
Du Pont on April 6
th, 1938. Plunkett had been attempting to find a better coolant gas. He left a batch in a container overnight, and on returning the next day, the gas had become a waxy solid.
The solid, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is a chemically inert polymer, is impervious to many corrosives and has a very low coefficient of friction. Teflon is opaque and nearly white in colour. It is 90% crystalline. The name was abbreviated to Teflon for simplicity and is a registered trademark of Du Pont.
Teflon fumes are poisonous. If you heat an empty Teflon coated pan to 400°C, the Teflon particles become airborne and can cause polymer fume fever. However, it is totally safe in normal cooking conditions. Solid Teflon is harmless to humans.
Commercial use didn't take off until 1948 and its applications were mostly industrial. This includes electrical insulation, frictionless bearings and gaskets. It wasn't until 1950 that Parisian Marc Gregoire devised a way of applying Teflon to fishing tackle to prevent tangling. His wife thought of the idea of non-stick pans. Gregoire created and sold over a million pans, under the trade name Tefal.
The idea didn't reach America until a reporter called Thomas Hardie visited a friend who had recently returned from Paris, with the non-stick cook-ware. Hardie was stunned and struck up a deal with Gregoire to market the pans in America. He imported 3000 but couldn't get support from any major department stores. Eventually, Macy's Herald Square purchased 200, which sold out in 2 days.
Demand rocketed but before Hardie could construct a manufacturing plant, every pan manufacturer had caught on to the idea.
One question: If Teflon doesn't stick to anything, how does it stick to the pan?
While Teflon cannot chemically bond with anything, it can mechanically bond. The surface of the pan is sandblasted and a primer is applied. The Teflon is then embedded into the primer.