Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
O
O
2
OH
O
O
O
+
HO
OH
O
9.9.3 Thermal Degradation of Polyamides
The thermal degradation of polyamides starts with free-radical cleavage of nitrogen-carbon bonds
[
520
]. Degradation of
nylon 6
can be illustrated as follows:
When nylon 6 is heated for 100 h at 305
C, half of the nitrogen escapes from the polymer and a
small amount of carbon dioxide forms [
457
]. This was postulated by Kamerbeek et al. as being the
result of reactions of two terminal amine groups [
579
]:
O
O
N
NH
2
H
2
N
N
+
6
6
H
H
O
O
+
NH
3
N
N
6
N
H
6
H
H
