Making nylon

There is something magical about mixing two liquids and pulling out a solid ever-increasing in length. That is to say, ever-increasing until the strand breaks or the reagents run out. There are various strategies for getting the longest possible strand out, this was the first year for the demonstration of the technique below:

Chemiluminescence

A long culminating synthesis experience results in a fun glow for the last organic lab of this spring. The pictures below illustrate the chemiluminescence of Cyalume with a blue fluorescer.

In spite of the successful experiment, the sunny outdoors were still tempting.

Making nylon in orgo lab

Below is a picture taken by a current student (Lynn) of the process of nylon-6,6 preparation from adipoyl chloride and hexamethylene diamine. The reaction proceeds in the presence of a base, to improve the nucleophilicity of the amine. The leaving group is the chloride ion.

The reaction resembles the synthesis of proteins in living systems, where tRNA acts as the leaving group after the amine of an amino acid performs the nucleophilic attack.