Materials
ADetail
Chemical Industry, Medical Industry, Food Processing Industry, Aerospace Industry, Automotive Industry
PTFE is a thermoplastic polymer, which is a white solid at room temperature, with a density of about 2200 kg/m3 and a melting point of 600 K (327 °C; 620 °F). It maintains high strength, toughness and self-lubrication at low temperatures down to 5 K (−268.15 °C; −450.67 °F), and good flexibility at temperatures above 194 K (−79 °C; −110 °F). PTFE gains its properties from the aggregate effect of carbon-fluorine bonds, as do all fluorocarbons. The only chemicals known to affect these carbon-fluorine bonds are highly reactive metals like the alkali metals, and at higher temperatures also such metals as aluminium and magnesium, and fluorinating agents such as xenon difluoride and cobalt(III) fluoride. At temperatures above 650–700 °C (1,200–1,290 °F) PTFE undergoes depolymerization.