Teflon is made from polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), which is composed of carbon and fluorine atoms.
Fluorine atoms have extremely high electronegativity, the highest of any element, meaning they repel any other atoms that come near, including the ones in that delicious free-range egg you've got your eye on. These repelling forces are known as van der Waals' forces, named after the Dutch scientist Johannes Diderik van der Waals.
PTFE is the only known dry surface that a gecko can't stick to. Interestingly, geckos can stick to dry glass, but have trouble on wet glass, whereas it's quite the opposite with Teflon, where wetting the surface actually makes it easier for the little critters :)
References:
- Ben Biggs (howitworksdaily.com)
- Laura Howes reporting on Alyssa Stark's research at The University of Akron, Ohio (prospect.rsc.org)
- wikipedia.org
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