Nylon forces, between chains

Binger and Hanna [76] have considered the alignment of 4-n-octyl-2-flurophenyl-4-n-octyloxybiphenyl-4 -carboxylate (MBF) and 8CB at room temperature on the (110) surface of polyethylene and the (100) surface of nylon. They find that alignment of both molecules is dominated by the behaviour of the flexible tails that prefer to align parallel between two polymer chains. This forces the mesogenic core to straddle one or more chains. This is illustrated in Fig. 4 for the specific case of MBF on the (110) surface of... 

It has recently been shown (26) that rayon can be subjected to an after treatment, consisting of a very brief exposure to steam, which greatly increases the crystallinity. The water acts as a typical plasticizer by reducing the interaction forces-i.e., the hydrogen bonds-between the cellulose chains this allows them to rearrange themselves so that greater order (crystallinity) is achieved. Table XV shows the increase in crystallinity that can be obtained in this manner. (Similar effects are also known with synthetic fibers-e.g., 6,6-Nylon). 

Nylon is named according to the number of C atoms between the N atoms in the chain. Nylon-46 has 4 C atoms then 6 C atoms, and this pattern repeats. Nylon-6 always has 6 atoms in a row. Speculate as to why nylon-46 is stronger than nylon-6. (Hint Consider the strengths of interchain forces.)... 

The close agreement between frequencies of Nylon-6 and n-heptane was interpreted as indicating that the motions of the five Hg units in nylon are similar to those of the five H2 units in solid n-heptane. It was pointed out that this is reasonable, as it has been shown that the inter-molecular forces have negligible effect on the intramolecular motions of n-paraffins and that, in Nylon-6, the packing of the chain segments is... 

The properties of elastomeric materials are greatly influenced by the strong inter-chain, i.e., intermolecular forces which can result in the formation of crystalline domain. Thus the elastomeric properties are those of an amorphous material having weak inter-chain interaction and hence no crystallisation. At the other extreme of polymer properties are fibre-forming polymers, such as Nylon, which when properly oriented lead to the formation of permanent crystalline fibres. In between these two extremes is a whole range of polymers, from purely amorphous elastomers to partially crystalline plastics, such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polycarbonate, etc. 

The distances between both the hydrogen-bonded chain segments and the sheets linked by van der Waal s forces are about the same as those found for nylon-6,6, namely 0.44 and 0.37 nm, respectively [240]. Although in these structures, due to the relatively strong hydrogen bonds, the chain-to-chain distances do not easily change, sheet-to-sheet distances are more... 

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