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Chemistry

A cleaner way to nylon?

The polymer nylon-6 is much in demand. An innovation in producing the precursor molecule, ε-caprolactam, involves a one-step process that is environmentally benign and may be scaled up for bulk production.

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Figure 1: Ways of making ɛ-caprolactam (CPL).

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Mokaya, R., Poliakoff, M. A cleaner way to nylon?. Nature 437, 1243–1244 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/4371243a

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