All About Nonstick

Nonstick cookware can be found in homes all around the world. Using nonstick cooking pans reduces clean-up efforts once the meal is finished and also prevents food from sticking to the pan and burning. Many people prefer nonstick pans to the more traditional stainless steel and cast iron pans because of these reasons and more.

History of nonstick

In 1938, Roy J. Plunkett of the Dupont Company discovered the polymer polytetrafluoroethylene, or PTFE. In 1946 it was first introduced as a nonstick coating into commercial products such as pans and cookware under the brand name Teflon. Teflon had been patented by Dupont in 1941 and was made a registered trademark in 1944. Teflon is touted as having he lowest friction coefficient of all known solid materials. In other words, it is widely considered the most slippery substance on Earth. It has a very high melting point of 327 degrees Celsius, making it safe for cooking, pipework, and other types of containers.

Other nonstick uses

The nonstick polymer Teflon soon found its way into a variety of other uses aside from cooking. A common misconception is that Teflon was initially a byproduct of the space program, although it was patented years earlier. However, Teflon did eventually prove useful in the Manhattan Project, where it was used to coat valves and pipes containing uranium. For years, Teflon has been used as a nonstick coating for armor piercing bullets. Because of its dielectric properties it is also commonly used as an insulator for cables, connectors, and circuit boards. It is also widely used in ball bearings, gears, slide plates and various other low friction applications.

Nonstick safety

As previously stated, the nonstick polymer known as Teflon has an extremely high melting point, making extremely safe in most cases. Various studies over the years have actually found Teflon to be a cleaner method of cooking than traditional methods. The toxins given off by ordinary cooking oils have shown to be more harmful than the fumes coming off nonstick coatings. However, in 2005, the EPA found that a certain chemical used in the process of making Teflon was a "likely carcinogen."

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