PTFE fiber is a chemically resistant material. It is used in woven form in certain
pump packings as well as in
nonwoven
Nonwoven fabric is a fabric-like material made from staple fibre (short) and long fibres (continuous long), bonded together by chemical, mechanical, heat or solvent treatment. The term is used in the textile manufacturing industry to denote fabri ...
form in hot gas
bag filters for industries with corrosive exhausts.
Because
PTFE is relatively insoluble and has a very high melting point, PTFE fibers can not be fashioned from conventional melt or solution
spinning. Instead they are made by combining particles of PTFE with cellulose, forming fibers of the cellulose and then sintering the PTFE particles (and charring the cellulose). The remnant char gives the fiber a brown color. It can be bleached white, although this reduces the strength.
[Fluoroplastics, Volume 1: Non-Melt Processible Fluoroplastics, Sina Ebnesajjad, 2000, p.194]
References
Materials science
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