Teflon Discovered
Roy Plunkett accidentally discovered polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon) at DuPont laboratories
April 06, 1938
Another Happy Accident in the Lab
On April 6, 1938, a chemist named Roy Plunkett was working at DuPont's Jackson Laboratory in New Jersey, experimenting with new refrigerant gases. He opened a canister of tetrafluoroethylene he had been storing cold and found it had solidified into a white powder instead of remaining a gas. The powder turned out to have extraordinary properties: it was chemically inert, had an extremely low coefficient of friction, and could withstand very high temperatures. DuPont recognized the potential and patented the material in 1941. It was trademarked as Teflon in 1945.
From Military Secret to Kitchen Essential
Teflon's first major application was not in cooking but in the Manhattan Project, where it was used to line containers holding corrosive uranium hexafluoride gas during the production of nuclear material. Its military and industrial uses remained classified for years. After the war, DuPont began exploring commercial applications. A French engineer introduced the idea of coating cookware with Teflon in the late 1950s, and the first non-stick pans were sold in France in 1954 and in the United States in 1961. The non-stick frying pan became one of the most popular kitchen products of the twentieth century.
A Versatile and Controversial Material
Beyond cookware, Teflon is used in aerospace components, medical implants, industrial seals, and waterproof clothing coatings. Its chemical cousin PTFE forms the lining of fuel lines, pipes, and electronic components worldwide. In recent decades, concerns have emerged about PFOA — a chemical formerly used in Teflon manufacturing — and its environmental persistence and potential health effects. DuPont phased out PFOA use by 2013 following regulatory pressure. The story of Teflon reflects how a single accidental discovery can spread into hundreds of applications across industries. Use the date calculator to see how many decades have passed since Plunkett's discovery.