Nylon. History of invention and production

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Nylon. History of invention and production

The history of technology, technology, objects around us

Directory / The history of technology, technology, objects around us

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Nylon (eng. Nylon) - a family of synthetic polyamides used primarily in the production of fibers. DuPont did not patent the name "nylon" as a trademark, making this a household word.

Nylon
Nylon structure

In the mid-1920s, the chief chemist of DuPont, Charles Stein, organized an experimental laboratory for fundamental research - the "Hall of Pure Science" (Purity Hall). Stein poached several young talents from the universities, one of whom was Wallace Carothers, the organic chemist at Harvard who led the polymerization research program. At that time, little was known about the chemistry of polymers.

The German chemist Hermann Staudinger believed that polymer molecules were long chains linked together, while another theory, dominant at that time, said that small molecules were assembled into aggregates and held by as yet unknown forces. "Dismantling" polymers, it was impossible to prove the correctness of a particular theory, so Carothers, a supporter of Staudinger's theory, took up synthesis.

In April 1930, Carothers' collaborator Julian Hill obtained a viscous mass from the synthesis of polyesters, from which long elastic and strong threads could be drawn. But in everyday life they were useless - they could not withstand the effects of hot water and not even too high a temperature. Therefore, Carothers switched to research in the field of polyamides.

With his assistant Don Coffman, he went through more than 80 combinations of acids and amines in order to obtain a superpolymer. And finally, on July 27, 1934, Wesley Peterson received a compound "polymer 5-10" (five carbon atoms in the composition of the amine and ten in the composition of the acid) with excellent consumer qualities. However, Elmer Bolton, who by that time had replaced Stein as chief chemist, rejected the material.

The only source of one of the starting materials was castor oil, which is available on a laboratory scale, but if mass-produced, the material would turn "gold". Another seven months of research passed, and on February 28, 1935, Gerard Berchet finally obtained "polymer 6-6" (or simply "66") from hexamethylenediamine and adipic acid. It wasn't as good as "5-10" because it had a higher melting point, making it difficult to manufacture. But on the other hand, the starting materials were cheap and available in industrial quantities.

From more than 350 naming proposals for "66 fiber" - from Duparooh (DuPont Pulls a Rabbit Out Of the Hat) to Dusilk and Silkex, emphasizing the resemblance to silk - the word nuron was chosen. But it sounded too "neuroanatomically", and it was reduced to nilon, and a little later - for euphony - to the famous nylon (read "nylon").

Nylon
Advertisement for nylon stockings

In 1938, the new fiber was announced at the New York World's Fair. The first use of the material was found as bristles for toothbrushes, but nylon gained its fame thanks to women's stockings. Their popularity was so great that in 1940, when the first nationwide sales took place, five million pairs were sold in one day.

Unfortunately, Carothers, who in 1936 became the first industrial scientist to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences, did not live to see the triumph of nylon - on April 29, 1937, just two days after his 41st birthday, he, suffering from depression, took lethal dose of cyanide. His friends believed that he was simply afraid that he would never come up with a brilliant idea comparable to the invention of nylon.

Author: S.Apresov

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