Roy Plunkett

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Roy J. Plunkett (born June 26, 1910 in Orange County , California , † May 12, 1994 in Corpus Christi , Texas ) was an American chemist who discovered the polymer Teflon in 1938 .

Life

Roy Plunkett was born on June 26, 1910 in Orange County, California. He later moved to New Carlisle , Ohio, and then to Pleasant Hill, Ohio , where he went to Newton High School. He studied at Manchester College , Indiana (BA chemistry 1932) and Ohio State University (Ph. D. chemistry 1936). In 1936 he was hired by the company " EI du Pont de Nemours and Company " as a research chemist for the Jackson Laboratory in Deepwater, New Jersey .

On April 6, 1938, Plunkett inspected a frozen and pressurized container containing 45 kilograms of tetrafluoroethylene that was used for the production of CFC refrigerants. When he opened the container to react a lot of the tetrafluoroethylene with hydrogen chloride to form the chlorofluorocarbon , he found that nothing was coming out of the container. The pressure gauges no longer showed any overpressure. Accordingly, the content should have escaped. However, a weighing showed the same weight as the day before. When he examined the container more closely, he discovered a white, waxy powder that had formed and was not previously in the container. The tetrafluoroethylene in the container had been transformed into polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon) through polymerization , a waxy solid with amazing properties such as corrosion resistance, low surface adhesion and high heat resistance. On February 4, 1941, the inventor was granted U.S. Patent No. 2,230,654.

Plunkett was also involved as chief chemist in the production of the gasoline additive tetraethyl lead (1939 to 1952, DuPont Chambers Works). He then headed Freon production at DuPont until he retired in 1975. He was inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame in 1973 and the Inventors Hall of Fame in 1985. Plunkett died on May 12, 1994 at the age of 83.

DuPont and Chemours have been presenting the Plunkett Awards in honor of Roy Plunkett since 1988 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patent US2230654 : Tetrafluoroethylene polymers. Applied July 1, 1939 , published February 4, 1941 , Applicant: Kinetic Chemicals Inc., Inventor: Roy J. Plunkett. ‌

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personal data
SURNAME Plunkett, Roy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Plunkett, Roy J.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American chemist, discoverer of Teflon
DATE OF BIRTH June 26, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Orange County , California
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 1994
Place of death Corpus Christi , Texas