Polytetrafluoroethylene, or PTFE, is better known by the trade name Teflon. It is used to make non-stick cooking pans, and anything else that needs to be slippery or non-stick. PTFE is also used to treat carpets and fabrics to make them stain resistant. What's more, it's also very useful in medical applications. Because human bodies
don’t reject it, it can be used for making artificial body parts such as heart valves, and therefore perfect for BODY JEWELLERY!
Technically
PTFE is made of a carbon backbone chain, and each carbon molecule has two fluorine atoms attached to it. Fluorine is a very strange element. When it is part of a molecule, it doesn't like to be around other molecules, even the fluorine atoms on other molecules. But it likes other kinds of molecules even less. So a molecule of PTFE, being just chock full of fluorine atoms as it is, would like to be as far away from other molecules as it can get. For this reason, the molecules at the surface of a piece of PTFE will repel the molecules of just about anything that tries to come close to it. This is why nothing sticks to PTFE - including body fluids.
It is a partly crystalline fluoroplastic and belongs to the thermoplastic group however not injection moulded. The rare combination of its exceptional properties is essentially due to its molecular structure. The remarkable chemical and thermal resistance (-200°C to +260°C; higher short-termed temperatures possible: 300°C) results from the linkage force between C- and F-atoms and from the nearly completely shielding of the carbon chain by fluoro atoms. This thermal resistance allow proper sterilisation for use in Body Piercing. Lab ware made of PTFE has a white appearance. The fabrication of PTFE laboratory devices is done by means of isostatical pressing processes or they are machined of extruded semi finished PTFE material.
How to be Inert?
PTFE is more than just slippery. It's also useful because it won't react with anything. Why, you ask? First of all, if it repels everything, then no molecule can get near it to react with it! PTFE is kind of like a sad person who tries protecting him or herself from emotional pain by never opening up to anyone.
Then there is the fact that the bond between the fluorine atom and the carbon atom is just really, really strong. The bond is almost bullet proof! It's so stable that nothing will react with it. Even when it gets as hot as a frying pan, not even oxygen will react with it!
