[jordaann.t]

Hey everyone,

I'm trying to work out how Teflon has such a high boiling point (it would have to if it's used on pans) since the only forces between the polymer chains are weak dispersion forces. Yes, the carbon chain is very long and therefore the boiling point would be large but why does polyethene melt easily even if it's a similar length? I thought that it might've had something to do with fluorine having a higher molecular mass than hydrogen but the fluorine doesn't make the weak dispersion forces, it's the carbon chain.

Thanks.

[INeedSerotonin]

Polymers do not have a boiling point, because they decompose before they boil.

I have also read that the forces between the fluorine atoms make the molecule more cohesive, which makes it more difficult for it to decompose. But we should wait for someone better at chemistry than us to answer that.

[AWK]

https://www.chemguide.co.uk/qandc/ptfe.html

[Corribus]

We had a good thread about Teflon a while back, and I even had a long email conversation with the author of the ChemGuide article about it.

https://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?topic=72456.msg276198#msg276198

[jordaann.t]

Thanks everyone!

All the responses were very helpful