英語(yǔ)聽(tīng)力文摘 特氟隆為何如此滑
Why Teflon Is Slippery?
1954年，法國(guó)工程師馬克·格雷瓜爾(Marc Gregoire)的妻子柯萊特(Colette)突發(fā)奇想，覺(jué)得丈夫用來(lái)涂在釣魚(yú)線(xiàn)上防止打結(jié)的不粘材料特氟龍(Teflon)如果可以用在煎鍋上，效果一定不錯(cuò)。拯救了無(wú)數(shù)現(xiàn)代家庭主婦的“不粘鍋”由此誕生。不過(guò)，1938年被羅伊·普朗克特(Roy Plunkett)發(fā)明出來(lái)的聚四氟乙烯(特氟龍是商品名)最早的用武之地，卻是舉世聞名的“曼哈頓計(jì)劃”。
特氟龍英文全稱(chēng)為Polytetrafluoroetylene，簡(jiǎn)稱(chēng)Teflon、PTFE、F4等。特氟龍高性能特種涂料是以聚四氟乙烯為基體樹(shù)脂的氟涂料，英文名稱(chēng)為T(mén)eflon，因?yàn)榘l(fā)音的緣故，通常又被稱(chēng)特氟龍分子式圖片之為鐵氟龍、鐵富龍、特富龍、特氟隆等等(皆為T(mén)eflon 的譯音)。特氟龍(鐵氟龍)涂料是一種獨(dú)一無(wú)二的高性能涂料，結(jié)合了耐熱性、化學(xué)惰性和優(yōu)異的絕緣穩(wěn)定性及低摩擦性，具有其他涂料無(wú)法抗衡的綜合優(yōu)勢(shì)，它應(yīng)用的靈活性使得它能用于幾乎所有形狀和大小的產(chǎn)品上。
Teflon is the trademark name for PTFE, a type of plastic.
If you own any non stick cookware, then you probably use PTFE on a daily basis. You might not realize, as you fry your morning eggs, that PTFE is one of the most slippery materials that can be manufactured. It’s about as slippery as wet ice.
What makes Teflon so slippery?
Teflon is chemically similar to another, more common plastic: polyethylene, the material used to make plastic bags and other plastic containers.
Chemically, polyethylene is made from long chains of carbon atoms with hydrogen atoms bonded to the sides of the chains. To make Teflon, the hydrogen atoms of polyethylene are replaced by fluorine atoms.
Fluorine Atoms
It’s the fluorine atoms that give Teflon its slipperiness. Fluorine atoms are physically bigger than hydrogen atoms. Their large size makes them huddle around the central carbon chains in a much tighter formation.
This tight formation works like a kind of chemical armor, protecting the carbon atoms which in turn hold the molecule together.
Chemical Teamwork
This chemical teamwork between carbon and fluorine makes Teflon extremely chemically stable, and it’s this chemical stability that makes Teflon so slippery.
Foreign substances, like a frying egg, can find no chemical foothold on the fluorine armor, so they simply slide away.
Never Sticky
Getting this slippery substance to stick to a frying pan is a bit of a trick.
Teflon is broken into a fine powder and suspended in water. The pan is then thoroughly cleaned, then roughened by sand-blasting. The Teflon is sprayed onto the pan and baked, causing it to fuse together and lock onto the roughened surface of the pan.
As long as you don’t scratch this protective coating, years worth of fried eggs, melted cheese, burned milk even toffee will slide away effortlessly.
