Roy J. Plunkett
DuPont
Inducted 1973
Roy J. Plunkett (1910 – 1994) was an American chemist known for discovering Teflon™ polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) resin in 1938 while working as a chemist at DuPont. Plunkett joined DuPont in 1936 and became director of operations of DuPont’s Freon Products Division of the Organic Chemicals Department. He was a corporate leader at the Freon Products Division, managing research, development, and production that led to numerous new fluorochemical products and processes.
Upon his induction into the Plastics Hall of Fame in 1973, Plunkett reflected on his career:
“The discovery of polytetrafluoroethylene resin appears in retrospect to have been more than a turning point in fluorine chemistry. It spawned a whole family of new plastics and resins. It occurred on April 6, 1938, when I opened a steel cylinder that contained tetrafluoroethylene and found that it had polymerized to a white waxy solid. From this discovery came the development, at DuPont, of Teflon™ polytetrafluoroethylene resin. So many useful inventions stemmed from this event that it is difficult to accept that the field of fluorine chemistry was considered somewhat “mature” at the time, with no new development in sight.
From its beginning, Teflon was a stimulus to research, leading to a range of useful developments — an elastomer with excellent resistance to heat, oxidizing conditions, and chemical attack. Today, it serves in gaskets, seals, tubing, and other flexible forms used in severe temperature and chemical conditions. It also led to the development of stain- and moisture-resistant coatings for apparel, carpets, upholstery, and other textile products. Other developments were a grease- and moisture-resistant coating for paper and ingredients in weather-resistant paints. A resistant film was developed that is used for low-maintenance building exteriors.
The early difficulty in learning to fabricate and shape PTFE resin gradually gave way to the point where it was possible to form it into a fiber. Textiles made from it are used to make fabric bearings so flow-resistant that they can support bridges. In the 1950s, copolymers were developed that retained most of the original PTFE polymer’s chemical stability and mechanical properties, but they could be molded or extruded much like polyethylene.
Even with this sustained flow of new fluoroplastics, the rest of this century will not see them grow in rank as one of the largest families of plastics. But the outlook is bright in terms of benefit to humankind and potential for further development. After more than 37 years of working in this field, I am proud to have observed this growth first-hand.”
https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/roy-j-plunkett
Areas of Expertise:
Plastic Materials