Fluorinated polymers

Fluoropolymers are in a class of their own in the wide range of macromolecular compounds available to industry. Generally speaking, fluorine substitution of hydrogen atoms in a macromolecular chain improves thermal and chemical resistance, delays or inhibits flame propagation, lowers critical surface tension and enhances dielectric properties. Naturally, the greater the degree of substitution of hydrogen by fluorine, the greater the effect, reaching its maximum for polymers containing only carbon and fluorine. Fluorinated polymers are "specialties" manufactured on a relatively modest scale and reserved for applications in environments that destroy or degrade other polymers, or used because of some of their exceptional properties.

In what follows, we shall confine ourselves to fluoropolymers manufactured at the industrial or semi-industrial stage, i.e. fluoroplastics and fluoroelastomers.