Nylon 6

Nylon 6

Chemical companies developed nylon 6 in the 1930s to circumvent patents protecting nylon 6,6 technology. Nylon 6 is made by polymerizing a single monomer called caprolactam that contains six carbon atoms. During nylon 6 production, caprolactam reacts with itself to form an amide chemical bond, as one end of caprolactam is a carboxylic acid group, and the other end is an amine group. When the reaction is repeated, nylon 6 polyamide is produced; it has six carbon atoms between each of the amide bonds, hence the nylon 6 designation. Nylon 6 has more toughness, a better appearance, and typically costs less than nylon 6,6.