The creep behavior and resilience of conventional polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) under extreme operating conditions severely limit its long-term reliability as a high-performance static sealing material. In this work, PTFE was induced the transformation of a three-dimensional cross-linked network through ionization-induced enhancing technology (IEPTFE), thereby enhancing its creep resistance. Compared to raw PTFE, the IEPTFE exhibits a 16.12% increase in crystallinity, indicating that ionization-induced enhancing technology induces a “fracture-recrystallization” process in PTFE, leading to the formation of a highly crystalline three-dimensional network structure. Furthermore, the irreversible creep of IEPTFE decreased by 84.6% at 25°C, the absolute values of key ratchet creep parameters decreased, the stress relaxation rate decreased by 28.62%, and the rebound rate increased from 26.02% to 36.64%. At 150°C, the IEPTFE still maintained significant advantages: irreversible creep was reduced by 77.9%, the stress relaxation rate decreased from 56.95% to 38.40%, and the recovery rate increased from 14.55% to 35.47%. This work elucidates the mechanism underlying the enhanced creep resistance of IEPTFE, laying a crucial experimental foundation and theoretical basis for PTFE sealing materials in extreme operating conditions.
