Why doesn’t anything stick to Teflon? - Ashwini Bharathula

Teflon was in the spacesuits the Apollo crew wore for the moon landing, in pipes and valves used in the Manhattan project, and it may be in your kitchen, as the nonstick coating on frying pans and cookie sheets. So what is this slippery solid — and why doesn’t anything stick to it? Ashwini Bharathula describes the science behind Teflon.

Lesson by Ashwini Bharathula, animation by Andrew Foerster.

[nic]

"Teflon is toxic when hot"
"Oh, let's cook in it!"

[sirgerbilmacintosh]

I've always wanted to know how Teflon sticks to a pan if nothing sticks to it. Thanks TED. You da man, and i'm a gerbil.

[oliviahesson]

I like how carbon and fluorine were related to an obsessed couple, the idea made me picture it a lot better and the animation was on point.

[BanaMUA]

What I learnt from this is that most great things come about by accidents

[StrangerHappened]

*The issue is that Teflon might start emitting poisons much earlier than you think, * especially due to local overheating like in case of frying eggs you see in the video. The eggs are not really going around the pan all the time, they occupy certain area. Thus other areas of the pan get overheated.

[MAdhvaryu]

I love the animations in these videos.

[Bankstercide]

Which leads us to our next question: "Will Velcro still stick to itself... if coated in Teflon?"

[TroyQwert]

My huge experience of using Teflon frying pans brought me finally to the idea that there's no better frying pan than one made of clean flat brushed stainless steel or cast iron.

[tobiacremona]

"Teflon is harmless"
Watch the film "Dark Waters", you'll change your mind pretty quickly

[michelgabe]

the music and the animations were on point, great job:D

[coermech]

A video is needed on the safety of food cooked on teflon coated objects.
Although she mentioned that it's harmless but it's no secret now that over time, teflon enters our body with food and is a carcinogen.
It was also mentioned in an article that 3M knew since 1980's that Teflon is a carcinogen but they sold the utensils anyway.
As for me, I have stopped using teflon coated utensils.

[chromeAKs]

Because teflon is dead inside. Eggs, pancakes, love... they just slide off

[OhMyPets]

I THINK I AM MADE OF TEFLON...
because NOBODY STICKS with me. 😭

[tanmaysahoo]

Finally a great animation and narration after a long time

[lordlouckster]

"Its exact composition is a trade secret guarded by each manufacturer."
Now we just need an open source teflon attaching method.

[lemonice]

PTFE

I have a Poly
I have Tetra
Ugh! ...PolyTetra

i have a Fluor
i have a Ethylene
Ugh! FlouoroEthylene

PolyTetra...
FlouoroEthylene...
Ugh!
PolyTetraFluoroEthylene

[Anthony-cnll]

The "proprietary" primer layer is just unsaturated hydrocarbons which they get by stripping Teflon using ions under high vacuum or a reducing agent. They will also bake it at high temperatures, to give an extra mechanical bind. There are two coats of this and some DuPont marketers will refer to it as the mid-coat but it's just another spray of the same stuff. The top layer is Teflon stripped in a more controlled manner on one side so that they stick to the primer.

[lokendojsjsx]

Just remember to NEVER use Teflon nearby a Bird. If you own any species of birds, it's probably better to avoid it completely. Even small exposure times could be lethal for them, depending on the species

[cilglwb]

왜 아무것도 테플론에 붙을 수 없는지에 대하여 해답을 알아가는 정말 재미있는 시간이 되었습니다. 테플론이 왜 미끄러운지 원자적인 구조까지 바라보지았지만 이해가 잘 되었습니다. 뜻깊었던 시간이 되었습니다. 감사합니다.

[carltonblend]

One thing I'll never uderstand is why a video so informative, specially coming from TED uses Fahrenheit as a unit for temperature...