Category Chemistry

           When you pour the dosa batter on a non-stick pan, the flour is sticky. But you can easily take out the dosa from the pan with a wooden spatula once it’s cooked. You don’t have to smear the pan with oil like the traditional ones. Wonder why? This would not be possible if not for the Teflon coating in the pans.

          Teflon does not melt easily. It has a high melting point and is also stable at very low temperatures. Teflon is extremely resistant to corrosion. It cannot be dissolved by most of the materials. In addition to this, it is very slippery and has high resistance corrosive chemicals. Therefore, Teflon provides a perfect coating material for cooking utensils that resists heat, friction and wear and tear. Teflon is also used widely in carpets, wall coverings, paints and as weatherproofing on outdoor signs.

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           Teflon is familiar to all of us from the advertisements of non-stick cookware and paints. But, Teflon is just the brand name. Polytetrafluoroethylene is the chemical name of Teflon. Quite a mouthful, right?

           Teflon is a compound made of tetrafluoroethylene monomers. The discovery of Teflon was not deliberate. A young scientist named Roy Plunkett who worked at Du Pont accidentally made Teflon while he was working on a refrigerant compound. He combined hydrochloric acid with tetrafluoroethylene to obtain a new compound.

           The gas formed in the reaction cooled down and transformed to a white powder overnight forming the new material – Teflon.

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            Kevlar belongs to the aramid family of fibres. So is twaron. Twaron shares many similarities with kevlar. It has a high tensile strength and shows great thermal stability just like kevlar. Twaron neither burns, nor melts. It also shows high resistance to chemical substances.

           Twaron was invented by a Dutch company named AKZO in the 1970s. But, it was not commercially produced until 1986, because of financial troubles. When it was first produced, twaron was called ‘fibreX’. Now, a company called Teijin produces twaron.

           Twaron too is used for making bulletproof body armour. It is also used to make optical fibre cables and substitutes for asbestos.

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           Do you have shiny, plastic cookware and plates in your kitchen? Most of these plates are made of melamine.

           Melamine is an organic compound which is mostly made of nitrogen. It is used to make a lot of industrial products like dinnerware, adhesives, glues, coatings and flame retardants.

           These days, urea is used as a starting material for the production of melamine. It can also be made from dicyandiamide or hydrogen cyanide. Urea is broken down and reacted to form melamine-formaldehyde resins.

           This can be moulded into different shapes forming dishes, handles, containers and so on.

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           There are metals that can resist bullets. But it would be difficult to carry bulletproof vests made of metals. The more convenient option is a lighter, strong fibre which will prevent the bullets from hitting your body and easy to wear at the same time. And that is why Kevlar is used for this purpose.

           Kevlar is one of the strongest materials on earth; when it is woven into fabric, it is five times stronger than steel. It can even resist knives. Kevlar has a strong ring-like structure and can resist high temperatures. It is used for making many types of body armour.

Picture Credit : Google