What Is Nylon?

How is nylon made?

Nylon is made by linking small chemical building blocks into long polyamide chains, melting the polymer and pushing it through the fine holes of a spinneret to form filaments, which are then stretched to make them strong. Nylon 6,6 and nylon 6 are still the most common nylons used in fibres.

• Nylon 6,6 is made from adipic acid and hexamethylenediamine. Each contains six carbon atoms, which gives the fibre its name.
• Nylon 6 is made from caprolactam and is named for the six carbon atoms in its basic unit.

The stretching step, called drawing, matters as much as the chemistry. Under tension the molecules line up until the filament is about four times its original length. Cold-drawn nylon is tough, elastic and strong. Nylon filaments have a round cross-section and a naturally high gloss; titanium dioxide may be added to the fibre surface to reduce that lustre.

Who invented nylon?

Nylon was developed in the 1930s by a DuPont research team headed by the American chemist Wallace H. Carothers. Carothers began his polymer research at DuPont in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1928, and the company chose the fibre for full-scale production in July 1935. The American Chemical Society describes nylon as “the world’s first fully synthetic fiber”.

Key dates, from the American Chemical Society:

• 27 October 1938: DuPont’s Charles Stine announced the fibre, by then named nylon, at a Herald Tribune forum in New York.
• March 1939: sample stockings were sold to company office staff in Wilmington.
• 15 May 1940: nylon stockings went on sale across the US, and nearly 800,000 pairs sold that first day.
• 1941: nylon held more than 30% of the hosiery market. After the US entered the Second World War in December 1941, all nylon output went to military needs, part of the story of 1940s wartime fashion.

DuPont aimed the fibre at women’s hosiery because of its silk-like qualities. By 1939 nylon 6,6 was in commercial production in the US and nylon 6 in Germany. Trade names listed by the CAMEO materials database include Perlon (Germany), Enkalon and Antron.

What are the properties of nylon?

Nylon is strong, elastic and very resistant to abrasion, but it absorbs little moisture, builds up static and melts when it gets too hot.

• Strength and wear: nylon has high resistance to wear, heat and chemicals. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s CAMEO database describes nylon fibres as twice as durable as cotton.
• Stretch and recovery: the fibre has high elasticity.
• Moisture: absorption is low, with a moisture regain of 4.2–5.0%. Nylon also absorbs and holds body oils and perspiration stains.
• Static and pilling: nylon builds up static electricity, and spun nylon (made from short cut fibres rather than continuous filament) pills.
• Heat: nylon fibre melts at about 250 °C, and it melts and fuses under too much heat. Sources differ on how it burns: CAMEO says that in a continuous flame nylon melts first, then ignites and burns rapidly, while University of Georgia Extension lists it as not burning easily.
• Light: nylon is degraded by sunlight, which is why it is not the best choice for sheer curtains.
• Colour: nylon takes dye very well, but it also picks up dye and soil in the wash.
• Pests: nylon resists insects and microorganisms.

In clothing, nylon is used for garments, undergarments, linings and hosiery; outside fashion it appears in parachutes, carpets, tyre cords, brushes and fishing line.

How is nylon graded or measured?

Nylon is not graded on a label by fibre fineness the way wool is by micron; the law defines it by its chemistry, and a few laboratory values describe how the fibre behaves. The legal names “nylon” and “polyamide” cover every type, so the label alone will not tell you whether a garment uses nylon 6 or nylon 6,6.

How does nylon appear on a clothing label?

Under US law the generic name is “nylon” (the FTC also recognises the international ISO 2076 fibre names), while EU labels use “polyamide” or “nylon”, in each case followed by its percentage by fibre weight.

United States (16 CFR 303)

• “Nylon” is a manufactured fibre of long-chain synthetic polyamide in which less than 85% of the amide linkages are attached directly to two aromatic rings. At 85% or more, the fibre is aramid instead.
• A fibre under 5% of total fibre weight is shown as other fibre rather than by name, unless it has a clearly established functional significance at that amount (16 CFR 303.3).
• A trademark such as a branded nylon may appear, but the generic name must sit in immediate conjunction with it.
• Stated percentages may vary by no more than 3% of total fibre weight, except that no tolerance applies to a product labelled as made wholly of one fibre.
• Labels also carry the name or registered identification number (RN) of the business responsible, and the country where the product was processed or made.

European Union (Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011)

• “Polyamide or nylon” (Annex I, No 30) covers fibres in which at least 85% of the amide linkages are joined to aliphatic or cycloaliphatic units. Aramid is a separate name (No 31).
• Blends list every fibre with its percentage by weight in descending order.
• “100%”, “pure” and “all” are allowed only for products made of one fibre; up to 2% of technically unavoidable extraneous fibres (5% for carded products) is tolerated.
• A manufacturing tolerance of 3% applies between the stated and analysed composition.

How do you tell good nylon from poor nylon?

Judge nylon by its fibre line, its surface and any signs of heat or light damage.

• Read the whole fibre line. On a US label, a brand name should sit next to the word nylon; on an EU label, “100%” means the cloth is one fibre, apart from up to 2% of technically unavoidable stray fibres (5% for carded cloth).
• Look at the surface where it rubs. Check underarms, side seams and inner thighs for pills. Spun nylon pills; a new piece already covered in pills is a warning.
• Check light colours in daylight. White and pastel nylon greys and yellows with age and poor care, so a dull cast on an unworn piece is worth questioning.
• Feel for fused spots. Hard, puckered or melted patches mean the fibre has fused under too much heat.
• Inspect sun-facing areas on bags, jackets and outdoor pieces. Because sunlight degrades nylon, faded shoulders or flap tops can signal weakened fibre.
• Do not read gloss as quality. Nylon is naturally glossy; a matt finish may simply mean titanium dioxide was added to reduce lustre.
• Burn test, with care. On a single thread snipped from a seam allowance, in a continuous flame nylon melts first, then ignites, and it smells of burnt plastic.

How do you care for nylon?

Follow the permanent care label, wash white or pastel nylon apart from coloured or badly soiled items, and keep heat low, because nylon melts if it gets too hot.

• Pre-treat oil and grease stains with a detergent solution or pre-wash; water-based stains usually wash out easily.
• Use a dry oxygen bleach; a commercial nylon whitener can brighten greyed or yellowed pieces.
• If whites keep greying, more detergent and a warmer wash may help, depending on how hard your water is.
• Dry and store nylon away from strong sunlight, which weakens it. Nylon itself resists insects, so moth damage in a blend points to the other fibres.

Because nylon picks up colour in the wash, keep colourfastness in mind when mixing loads.

Is nylon sustainable?

Conventional nylon is made from fossil-based raw materials, and recycling remains small: according to Textile Exchange, recycled polyamide made up only about 2% of the polyamide market in 2024.

Textile Exchange puts global polyamide production at 7.0 million tonnes in 2024, about 5% of all fibre produced. That makes it the second most used synthetic fibre after polyester, which alone accounted for around 59%. The report links the low recycled share to technical recycling challenges and the comparatively low price of virgin fossil-based polyamide.

Econyl is a branded nylon made from recycled material. For the wider debate, see sustainable fashion.