Abstract: A mechanical seal surrounding a rotary shaft to prevent a fluid (i.e., a liquid or gas) from flowing across the seal, the seal including a rotatable seal ring that includes a rotatable seal face, where the rotatable seal ring is rotatable around a rotational axis of the rotary shaft, and a stationary seal ring spatially fixed relative to the rotatable seal ring and having a stationary seal face to engage the rotatable seal face to form the mechanical seal, where the stationary seal ring includes about 1% to about 30%, by weight, graphite, and about 70% to about 98%, by weight, polytetrafluoroethylene. Also, a graphite containing teflon sealing ring used to form a mechanical seal around a rotary shaft, where the teflon sealing ring includes a first seal face capable of engaging a second seal face on a second sealing ring surrounding the rotary shaft to form the mechanical seal. The teflon sealing ring may include graphite, polytetrafluoroethylene, and optionally, non-graphite carbon.