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How is polytetrafluoroethene (PTFE/Teflon) made from crude oil?

April 26, 2017Chemistry crude Mathematics Oil PTFE Teflon

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How is polytetrafluoroethene (PTFE/Teflon) made from crude oil?

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PTFE is made from ethylene (ethene) which itself is produced from crude oil by “cracking” and “dehydrogenation” which is the same process which is used for manufacture of hydrogen. The first PTFE was produced by accident in an attempt to prepare a new refrigerant perfluoroethylene but the iron surface of the reactor acted as a catalyst and the product polymerized. This was in the mid 1940s incredibly and the main application for the product was only found in the early 1960s.