How to Pour Two Liquids into a Glass and Make a Rope

One of the most famous tricks in chemistry is “ The Rope Trick . ” First discovered in 1959 by the chemist who choke on to invent kevlar , this have chemists pour two liquids into a glass . . . and then pull out a seemingly endless nylon rope from between the still - separated - liquid .

Here ’s how this trick goes.(If you do n’t like long names , I suggest you skip this paragraph . ) First you take 1,6 - diaminohexane and dissolve it in pee . This molecule is a corrosive six - carbon copy strand with a -NH2 grouping at both end . Then you mix in sebacoyl chloride with heptane and get decanedioyl dichloride . This is a ten - carbon chain with -COCl group at both ends .

When you unite these , they should look like unmixed salad salad dressing , one solution sitting placidly on top of the other . Then you take pair of pincers or a verge and reach down to right where the solutions disturb each other . take out up . You ’ll get a thin corduroy of rope . Wind it around a nail , a reefer , or a bobbin . grow . Just keep plough . You ’ll get a on the face of it sempiternal stretch of R-2 . This isnylon 6 , 10,named for the number of carbon atoms in each of its components .

What , you might ask , the hell ?

depend down at theequation . In the top line you ’ll see 1,6 - diaminohexane with its NH2 , also known as the amino group , at both end . There ’s the positive sign . Then there ’s the decanedioyl dichloride with its -COCl , or acid chloride , group at both ends . At the interface where the fluids are touching , the amino and acid chloride groups conflate .

Which work us to the second line of business . At the right we have HCl , or hydrochloric Lucy in the sky with diamonds , which is why you scent the strand of nylon around a rod and you wash it before equal it with your fingers . On the left we have a very long chain of atoms , which still has a NH2 ( amino mathematical group ) at one end and a -COCl ( acid chloride ) group at the other . It can just keep fuse .

Lego Lord Of The Rings Balrog Book Nook

nH2 N(CH2 ) 6 NH2 + nClOC(CH2 ) 8 COCl →

H2 N[(CH2 ) 6 NHCO(CH2 ) 8]nCOCl + nHCl

As the chemist take forth the solid formed at the border between the two liquids , they make a newfangled mete between liquid , where more “ rope ” forms . This small demonstration has been called “ The Rope Trick ” ever since chemist Stephanie Kwolek used that as a title for her newspaper on the find in 1959 . It ’s become a staple fibre of chemistry classrooms . Now that we know what ’s going on – who wants to see it ?

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