How to pronounce “plunkett” in English

The gas had polymerized into polytetrafluoroethylene, forming this slippery powder.Plunkett just wanted to get rid of it because it ruined his experiment.But before throwing it out, he decided to do some tests on it.

Then he tried the strongest base he had, but that wouldn't melt it either.Plunkett went through all of the solvents in the lab, but the powder remained intact.It wouldn't melt, corrode, or react with anything.

So if other atoms or molecules get close, they're essentially ignored.And Plunkett's magic powder was completely covered in carbon-fluorine bonds, so it hardly reacted with anything.Okay, so he is got this incredibly inert stuff.

It's a pair of double-bonded carbons, each bonded to two fluorine atoms.One morning, as Plunkett was setting up a test, his assistant picked out a cylinder full of TFE and twisted the valve,but nothing came out.

In 1936, a chemical company called DuPont set out to find a safer alternative to the gases used in fridges, one that was neither toxic nor flammable.Their lead scientist on the project was a 27-year-old chemist named Roy J. Plunkett.He was experimenting with a gas called tetrafluoroethylene, or TFE.