The discovery of Teflon

Teflon (poly(tetrafluoroethene), ptfe) was discovered by accident though the story of its discovery does recall the phrase 'chance favours the prepared mind'. In 1938, 26-year old Roy Plunkett was working for DuPont on gases which could be used as coolants in fridges, one of which was tetrafluoroethene. 

On 6 April he opened the valve of a cylinder containing about 1kg of the gas but nothing came out. He did what many of us would do and poked the valve with a wire but to no avail. He then weighed the cylinder and the weight indicated that it was still full. When he shook the cylinder it rattled. Eventually he sawed open the cylinder to find that it contained a solid. Somehow, the gas molecules, which each have a carbon-carbon double bond, had polymerised.