Nylon-6,6 is a synthetic polyamide. It is formed by heating hexane-1,6-diamine with hexanedioic acid (adipic acid) in a condensation polymerization reaction. (Section 24.2 )
(a) Why is the formation of nylon- 6,6 called a condensation polymerization?
(b) Why does the formation of nylon- 6,6 from hexane- 1 , 6-diamine and hexanedioic acid require heating?
(c) If hexanedioic acid is replaced by hexanedioyl dichloride, then reaction with hexane- 1,6 -diamine forms nylon- 6,6 at room temperature. Why does the polymerization using hexanedioy dichloride take place under milder reaction conditions?
(d) Nylon-6,6 is recycled by hydrolysing all of the amide bonds to reform the monomers, and then repolymerizing. Hydrolysis of amide bonds under basic conditions requires heating in a concentrated aqueous solution of hydroxide ions. As shown below, two reaction pathways are possible.
(i) Use curly arrows to show the movement of electrons in paths A and B.
(ii) Under what conditions would you expect path $\mathrm{B}$ to be favoured over path $A ?$