Why does teflon stick to metal

Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. If nothing sticks to Teflon, how does Teflon stick to frying pans? Ask Question. Asked 9 years, 6 months ago. Active 1 year, 4 months ago. Viewed 4k times. Improve this question. For example, perhaps the coating is uneven or not the correct thickness.

A microscopy analysis of sample cross-sections can help us understand the dimensions of the coating and any variances. We can use chemical analysis and microscopy to detect anything that might be interfering with the surface adhesion. Not all scientific accidents are as happy as the original discovery of PTFE. Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American.

Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Go Paperless with Digital. Lovinger, director of the polymers program at the National Science Foundation, offers this explanation: Andrew J. Get smart. So, back to the drawing board. The basic non-stick molecule is a polymer, or chain, of fluorine atoms and additives such as carbon and hydrogen. The longer this chain, the tougher it is; but a molecule that's too long gets viscous and hard to handle. To move beyond mere mechanics, the frying-pan engineers added a sticky molecule to the non-stick molecule.

Non-stick was now applied in coats, with the bottom coat containing the sticky additive that held to both the metal pan and the non-stick molecules. A coat of non-sticky non-stick went over that, non-stick and non-stick clinging together lovingly. A final non-stick layer, spiked with teensy bits of ceramic or other tougheners, protected the softer guts.

This is how lots of non-sticks are made still: Grit-blast the pan; spray on a sticky primer coat, a midcoat, and a tougher top coat; and bake. Oh, yeah: Add colors if you like -- the fluoropolymer is naturally white, but cooks prefer somber saucepans.

You may also add a handful of mica, a sparkly rock, to glimmer up the finish. But the latest non-stick revolution, probably lost on cooks, is a non-mechanical means of sticking non-stick to aluminum. In this method, which Chemours calls "smooth technology," new-and-improved sticky molecules in the primer coat sink as the pan bakes and chemically lock themselves to smooth, unmolested metal.

The upper layers fuse together better, and you get a tougher pan. But even tough non-stick isn't very tough. Each of the three coats is only about one one-thousandth of an inch thick, for starters.

And non-stick softens as it heats, leaving forks as lethal as ever. Plus, raw non-stick is baked on at only about degrees for four or five minutes, so you can toast it if you leave it on the burner with nothing in the pan. Then a rubber spatula, even in the hands of the gentlest grandmother, will slowly disentangle the long, slippery molecules and carry them away. We welcome all enquiries Student to Aerospace Engineer.

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