Why is it difficult to find a suitable solvent to dissolve PTFE?

Polytetrafluoroethylene is a polymer and will not be dissolved.

Insoluble in water, not a liquid solvent tetrafluoroethylene boiling point -76, critical temperature 33, easy to form unstable and explosive peroxide, at room temperature for the gas. Nature, ignition temperature of only 180 ℃. Soluble in acetone. It is an unsaturated hydrocarbon: colorless and odorless gas. In the presence of oxygen. Heavier than air. Can be liquefied under pressure, ethanol. Spontaneous combustion limit is 11%-60% (by volume) critical pressure 3.3°C.

Extended information.

In organic solvents, dissolution of polymers occurs due to the principle of similar solubility and is manifested by two processes.

(1) Diffusion of the solvent into the polymer.

(2) dissociation of the polymer chains, which leads to changes in their surface structure.

From the thermodynamic point of view, when small molecules enter the polymer network, the distance between polymer chain segments increases, weakening the entanglement of the chain segments and enhancing their motility, causing a change in the volume of the system. When a large number of low-molecular solvents enter the dense polymer material, the polymer material itself will be "swollen" and "dissolved" phenomenon, so as to destroy the original structural form, cracking or deformation, affecting its performance.