PTFE is one of the most versatile and popular polymers. It was discovered serendipitously in 1938 by Roy Plunkett, a chemist for the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (now DuPont) when he inadvertently coated the metal equipment used in processing radioactive materials for the Manhattan Project with gaseous tetrafluoroethylene refrigerant. Originally called Teflon, it became widely used in the 1960s as nonstick cookware.

Unlike most other polymers, PTFE is a dense, strong material with a high melting point and good mechanical properties. It is very resistant to chemicals and solvents. PTFE can be made into various grades and sizes for a variety of applications, from micro-machined parts to hoses and tanks. It has excellent dielectric properties with very low group velocity dispersion at radio frequencies. This makes PTFE an excellent choice for use in wiring, notably for aerospace and computer applications.

The chemical inertness of PTFE comes from the fact that its molecules are surrounded by an outer shell of fluorine atoms. This makes the carbon atoms almost completely shielded and gives it one of the strongest chemical bonds in organic chemistry, the C-F bond. This, along with its insolubility, accounts for its nearly total chemical inertness.

Among the most important co-monomers of PTFE are hexafluoropropylene (HFP), perfluoroethylene propylene vinyl ether (PFEP) and perfluoroalkoxy (PFA). These can be incorporated into the basic PTFE chain to make modified polymers that resemble more general melt processable thermoplastics, with phase transitions accompanied by a readily discernible change in the morphology.