Linear single oligomers of nylon-6, up to 12 repeat units, have been prepar
ed by stepwise synthesis using protection, deprotection, and coupling react
ions. The dimer was synthesized starting with g-aminohexanoic acid; the tet
ramer, hexamer, octamer, and dodecamer were synthesized by coupling oligome
rs of lower molecular weight. The synthesized oligomers were characterized
by H-1 NMR and TOF-SIMS to confirm their structures and molecular weights.
In addition to silver cationized oligomer peaks, which are usually observed
in TOF-SIMS spectra, oligomer peaks cationized by sodium and hydrogen were
observed. No fragmentation other than loss of H-2 was observed even for th
e highest oligomer prepared in this study.