Annual Production

Nylon is the name given by the original developers, DuPont in the United States, to a synthetic polyamide. There are in fact several "nylons", each named according to the number of carbon atoms in the monomers from which the polymer is formed. What they all have in common is the polyamide link joining the monomers.

Naming System
The class of polymers is often referred to a polyamides, or PA for short. Nylon 6 and PA 6 are two names for the same polymer.

Polyamides fall into two groups:

Those synthesised from one repeating monomer are given a single number in their name, the number of carbon atoms in the monomer unit PA 6
PA 10
PA 12		 diagram: repeat monomer for nylons
Those synthesised from two different repeating monomers are given two numbers in their name, indicating the number of carbon atoms in each monomer unit PA 6,6
PA 6,10		 diagram: repeat monomer for nylons

Total annual production of all types of nylon is in the region of 5.5 million tonnes worldwide.

diagram: polyamide link

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