The Uses of Hexamethylenediamine

The industrial production of hexamethylenediamine became important with the discovery of the use of polyamides as synthetic fibres, the most important being Nylon-6,6. This polymer, prepared from adipic acid and hexamethylenediamine, was commercialized by DuPont in 1938 and it was virtually the only consumer of the entire production of this diamine until the development of light-stable polyurethanes. Those polymers, e.g. Desmodur N (Bayer) used in paints, are based on aliphatic diisocyanates prepared from the corresponding aliphatic diamine. 

Currently the global production of hexamethylenediamine exceeds 1.2 Mt/a and production (e.g. ICI, BASF and Rhone-Poulenc in Europe) is based on the hydrogenation of adiponitrile, largely obtained by catalytic addition of HCN to butadiene. Celanese produced hexamethylenediamine by reaction of ammonia with hexane-1,6-diol, coming from the hydrogenation of adipic acid. However, production by this method was abandoned in 1984. 

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