1910–1994

Roy J. Plunkett

DuPont chemist who discovered Teflon by accident while working on refrigerant gases.

Element

9FFluorine
1938

A cylinder of tetrafluoroethylene gas at DuPont seemed empty but weighed as much as ever. Roy Plunkett cut it open and found a slippery white solid: the gas had polymerised into Teflon.

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