According to world-famous American painter and television host, “there are no mistakes, just happy accidents.” Turns out, the same can be said for science, where unintentional accidents led to the invention or discovery of things that we still take advantage of and use today. In fact, it was an accident that led to the discovery of the microwave oven, as well as an artificial sweetener.
And it’s also an accident that led to the discovery of the material known as Teflon. Here’s how it went.
Only Happy Accidents
The material now universally known as Teflon was first discovered by U.S. research chemist Roy Plunkett, who was born in Ohio back on June 26, 1910. After studying chemistry and earning a doctoral degree from Ohio State University in 1936, Plunkett immediately worked for the DuPont chemical company located in New Jersey. This is where Plunkett would make the accident, and where he would be spending his entire working career.
Based on a biography of him published by the Science History Institute, one of his first assignments for the company was to find a non-toxic, non-flammable coolant to be used in refrigerators. To do this, he started researching new chlorofluorocarbon refrigerants, which back then was regarded as potential replacements for products such as sulfur dioxide and ammonia, “which regularly poisoned food-industry workers and people in their homes,” per the biography.
He had apparently managed to produce a quantity of tetrafluoroethylene gas (TFE) and stored it in small cylinders at dry-ice temperatures (minus 78.5 degrees Celsius) before chlorinating it. However, “none of the gas came out – yet the cylinder’s weight was unchanged,” when he and his assistant tried preparing a cylinder for use.
They then opened it and found a white powder that’s heat-resistant and chemically inert, A decade later, French engineer Marc Gregoire found a way to bond PTFE to aluminium.
And in 1960, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved PTFE for food processing equipment.
Before retiring back in 1975, Plunkett attended as a speaker at events, explaining that the accident happened because his mind “had been prepared for the challenge by years of education, and that he had succeeded because he was trained to recognize novelty.”
