Chemical Resistance of Fluoropolymers
Fluoropolymers are among the most chemically inert of all polymers and remain stable in almost all chemical environments. These high performance properties are a direct result of the unique chemical structure of fluoropolymers, which differs significantly from the structure of traditional polymers such as polyethylene. The tables and charts listed to the right provide details on chemical resistance of fluoropolymers.

PTFE
The chemical inertness of PTFE is outstanding because of the chemical structure. The challenges in processing the material led to the development of other fluoropolymers with a focus on preserving the full fluorination of the backbone chain for chemical resistance, while being melt-processable for ease of processing.

Other Fluoropolymers
The first melt-processable fluoropolymer developed was FEP or fluorinated ethylene propylene. This was developed in 1956 by Du Pont, and is fully fluorinated and melt-processable. The full fluorination preserved the essential chemical inertness of PTFE. The changes in the structure lead to melt-processability, but as a result there is some slight loss in high temperature properties.

Other melt-processable polymers introduced since then are PVDF (1961), PFA (1972), ETFE (1972) and ECTFE (1972). In all these cases the polymer structure does not have the full fluorination of the backbone chain that is seen in PTFE and as a result these polymers do not achieve the same chemical resistance that is seen in PTFE. As a general rule, the further the polymer structure deviates from the full fluorination of PTFE the more the chemical resistance deviates from the exceptional chemical inertness of PTFE - chemical structure largely defines chemical resistance.

Despite this, all fluoropolymers have a basic structure and chemical resistance that is far in excess of that achieved by the more traditional types of polymers. This makes them uniquely suited for applications where this chemical resistance is essential to the application.

Fillers
The wear resistance and other properties of fluoropolymers may be improved by incorporating fillers and account must be taken of the chemical resistance of the chosen filler.

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