Nylon rope trick

The nylon rope trick is a scientific demonstration that illustrates some of the fundamental chemical principles of step-growth polymerization and provides students and other observers with a hands-on demonstration of the preparation of a synthetic polymer.

The nylon rope trick typically makes use of a water solution of an aliphatic diamine with a solution of an aliphatic diacid chloride in a solvent that does not dissolve in water, yielding a synthetic polyamide of the nylon-type.

Nylon 610 is commonly used, in which hexamethylene diamine is dissolved in water to a concentration of about 0.40 moles / deciliter.

The solution is not agitated; instead the nylon 610 polymer forms as a flexible film at the interface of the water and cyclohexane layers, in an example of an interfacial polymerization.

[2] The nylon rope trick was developed as a scientific demonstration by American chemist Stephanie Kwolek, who later invented Kevlar aramid.