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Notable people · Inventor · Science

Roy J. Plunkett

Clark County-born, Ohio State-trained DuPont chemist who discovered polytetrafluoroethylene, sold as Teflon, on April 6, 1938.

Born June 26, 1910, New Carlisle
Died May 12, 1994, Corpus Christi (his home), TX

At a glance

Born
June 26, 1910, New Carlisle (Clark County) source
Died
May 12, 1994, Corpus Christi (his home), TX source
Also known as
Roy J. Plunkett, Roy Plunkett
Education
Newton High School, Pleasant Hill, OH
Manchester College, North Manchester, IN, to 1932, B.A. chemistry
Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, to 1936, Ph.D. chemistry
Known as
Inventor, Science
Organizations
DuPont, Ohio State University

Life story

Roy Plunkett was born in New Carlisle, Ohio, in 1910 and attended Newton High School in Pleasant Hill. He earned a chemistry degree at Manchester College in Indiana in 1932, then returned to Ohio for a Ph.D. in chemistry at Ohio State, finished in 1936.

DuPont hired him that year as a research chemist at its Jackson Laboratory in New Jersey. On April 6, 1938, while looking for a new refrigerant gas, he found that a stored cylinder had produced a slippery white solid, polytetrafluoroethylene, later sold as Teflon.

He later ran production of tetraethyllead and Freon and retired in 1975. He died in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1994.

Ohio ties

  • New Carlisle (1910)
    birthplace Clark County · source
  • Pleasant Hill (Newton High School) (to 1927)
    graduated from Newton High School in 1927; Newton Hall of Fame 2007 Miami County · source
  • Columbus (Ohio State University) (1932-1936)
    M.S. 1933 and Ph.D. 1936 in chemistry under carbohydrate chemist William Lloyd Evans; state marker on campus Franklin County · source
  • Franklin (1935)
    married Dorothy Enola Detrick here on August 16, 1935 Warren County · source

Timeline

  1. 1910 Born June 26 in New Carlisle, Ohio, to farmer Joseph Henry Plunkett; the family belonged to the Church of the Brethren. source
  2. 1927 Graduated from Newton High School in Pleasant Hill, where math-science teacher William White and principal Virden Thompson encouraged him. source
  3. 1932 Graduated in chemistry from Manchester College in North Manchester, Indiana, where he had roomed with Paul Flory. source
  4. 1933 Earned a master's degree at Ohio State University. source
  5. 1935 Married Dorothy Enola Detrick on August 16 in Franklin, Ohio. source
  6. 1936 Received his Ph.D. from Ohio State for work on carbohydrate oxidation under William Lloyd Evans, and joined DuPont's Jackson Laboratory in Deepwater, New Jersey. source
  7. 1938 On April 6, while working on a new refrigerant, found that a cylinder of tetrafluoroethylene had polymerized into a white solid, polytetrafluoroethylene. source
  8. 1939 Filed for a patent on July 1 and became supervisor of tetraethyl lead manufacturing at DuPont's Chambers Works. source
  9. 1941 U.S. Patent 2,230,654, 'Tetrafluoroethylene polymers', was issued February 4 and assigned to Kinetic Chemicals, Inc. source
  10. 1946 The first Teflon products, machine parts for military and industrial use, went on sale. source
  11. 1951 Received Philadelphia's John Scott Medal; every guest at the banquet took home a Teflon-coated muffin tin. source
  12. 1973 Inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame. source
  13. 1975 Retired from DuPont after directing its Freon products operations. source
  14. 1985 Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. source
  15. 1986 Recorded an oral history with James J. Bohning of the Center for History of Chemistry on April 14 and May 27. source
  16. 1994 Died of cancer at his home in Corpus Christi, Texas, on May 12, aged 83. source
  17. 2007 Inducted into the Newton Local Schools Hall of Fame as a 1927 graduate and the inventor of Teflon. source

What Roy is known for

  • Discovered PTFE (Teflon) April 1938
  • National Inventors Hall of Fame 1985
  • Discovery of PTFE / Teflon, 1938

Stories

'Hey Doc, did we use all of the gas?'

In 1938 Plunkett was working with tetrafluoroethylene at DuPont's Jackson Laboratory in his research on refrigerants, and he kept the gas in cylinders. On April 6 his helper, Jack Rebok, found that one cylinder gave no gas even though its valve was open, and asked, 'Hey Doc, did we use all of the gas in this cylinder?' Plunkett found that material was still inside, and he later recovered a white powder from it. It was the first evidence that tetrafluoroethylene had polymerized. DuPont filed for a patent on July 1, 1939, and it was granted in 1941.

Source

A Brethren farm boy and his roommate

Plunkett's father, Joseph Henry Plunkett, was a farmer, and the family belonged to the Church of the Brethren. Apart from about a year and a half in Roanoke, Virginia, Roy grew up on a farm. At Newton High School in Pleasant Hill he was pushed toward science by math-science teacher William White and principal Virden Thompson, and he graduated in 1927. At Manchester College in Indiana, chemistry teacher and dean Carl W. Holl encouraged him. There he met Paul J. Flory, who took the same classes and roomed with him in his third year, and the two went on to graduate school at Ohio State together. At Ohio State Plunkett wrote his thesis on carbohydrate chemistry under William Lloyd Evans.

Source

From the Manhattan Project to muffin tins

Plunkett's polymer did not reach kitchens for decades. Its first important use was in the Manhattan Project's gaseous diffusion process, where it resisted corrosion from fluorine and its compounds. Plunkett himself was transferred to DuPont's tetraethyl lead division, which made a gasoline octane additive. When Philadelphia gave him its John Scott Medal in 1951, every guest at the banquet took home a Teflon-coated muffin tin.

Source

Honors and things named for them

  • John Scott Medal, 1951
  • Plastics Hall of Fame, 1973
  • National Inventors Hall of Fame, 1985

Family

  • wife: Dorothy Enola Detrick
  • wife: Lois Mary Koch

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

12
  • 1 Ohio historical marker 48-25, Roy J. Plunkett, June 26, 1910 - May 12, 1994
    Columbus, Ohio State University, 120 W. 18th Avenue (west side of the Celeste Laboratory of Chemistry) Franklin County · source
  • 2 Newton High School (present school; whether it is the 1927 building was not confirmed)
    Pleasant Hill, 201 N. Long Street Miami County · source

Ohio places

Where Roy J. Plunkett was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Myths and corrections

Things often said about Roy J. Plunkett, and what the record shows.

Often said Plunkett was born in Orange County, California, and later moved to New Carlisle.

The record The German chemie.de lexicon says so, but his own oral history, the Ohio historical marker, the National Inventors Hall of Fame and Wikipedia all give New Carlisle, Ohio as his birthplace on June 26, 1910. source

Often said Teflon came out of the space program.

The record Plunkett found the polymer at DuPont in April 1938 and it was patented in 1941. Its first important use was in the Manhattan Project's gaseous diffusion plant in the 1940s, and the first Teflon products were sold in 1946, long before space suits and nose cones. source

Documents

Primary records: patents, letters, court and government files, nominations and old county histories, each at the archive that holds it.

Further reading

Sources

Confidence. Medium: the main facts were confirmed, but some details (often an address or ZIP code) were not.

Every link goes to the original source. Profile researched 2026-10-15.

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