A simplified reaction scheme for nylon 6,6 degradation that is consistent with all the published data is described. The degradation model has been incorporated into a flowing film polymerizer model with a distribution of residence times in order to predict molecular weight, amount of undegraded (amine and carboxyl) and degraded chain ends, and the extent of crosslinking. The outlet average molecular weight and water concentration come to steady state in about one mean residence time after a change in polymerizer operating conditions, whereas the degradation products continue to change slowly even after four residence times. Also, it is possible to choose the operating conditions of the polymerizer so the same molecular weight is produced at two different temperatures but with very different amounts of degradation products giving rise to products of significantly different quality.
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Steppan et al. (1991) studied this question.
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