Nylon: thermoplastics can be spun into long fibers

Thermoplastic polymers melt upon heating. To be thermoplastic, a polymer must have long chains attracting each other through weak intermolecular forces.

An example of a thermoplastic polymer is nylon. Nylon is a condensation polymer formed from two different monomer types. When the monomers polymerize, amide groups form. These amide groups make the fibers hydrophilic and give rise to hydrogen bonds between adjacent fibers resulting in high tensile strength.

Figure 1: The chemical structure of nylon. Nylon is used to make textiles of high tensile strength.