Versatile Plastic Invented Nearly 50 Years Ago : Teflon Finds New Uses in Computer-Chip Making

Not long ago test chemists at Du Pont boiled more than 100 different liquids, most of them nasty ones like sulfuric acid, in Teflon-lined containers to prove a point and create a new market for the Teflon.

The new use for the remarkable plastic is in the piping, filters and containers for the silicon-chip manufacturing industry, where mean acids and chemicals are essential.

Teflon, discovered by Roy Plunkett nearly 50 years ago, still seems to be nearly as exotic a man-made product as silicon. It is used to make parts for spaceships, automobiles, kitchen utensils and people.

Good Repair Material

Artificial kneecaps, hip joints, heart valves and arteries are made of Teflon.

“It’s a very good repair material for the human body,” Plunkett said in an interview, “because it is inert and long-lasting.”

Teflon-lined pots and pans came on the market nearly 20 years ago. They astonished women, who still were called housewives, by their ability to prevent the food from sticking.

“Nothing sticks to it,” Plunkett said.

The application to electronic chip-making is based on the non-stick quality carried to the extreme. No acids and solvents can break into Teflon and become contaminated by it. Nor does Teflon absorb anything from the solvents.

Plunkett, who is now 75, devotes most of his time to playing golf in Corpus Christi, Tex., where he lives.

“Who would have thought that Teflon would find itself in the mainstream of high-tech manufacturing?” he asked.