Preparation and characterization of nylon 6 11 copolymer

A new copolyamide, nylon 6 11, was prepared by hydrolytic polymerization and melt polycondensation and characterized by means of intrinsic viscosity, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) in this paper. It was found that the intrinsic viscosity of nylon 6 11 copolymer was influenced by the caprolactam content as well as the copolymerization time under vacuum. However, the incorporation of caprolactam into nylon 11 chains did not transform the crystal phase of nylon 11. The results of DSC demonstrated that a random copolyamide was formed during copolymerization of aminoundecanoic acid with caprolactam.