Nylon is a family of synthetic polymers with amide backbones, usually linking aliphatic or semi-aromatic groups.
Wallace Carothers
Nylon stockings being inspected in Malmö, Sweden, in 1954
Close-up photograph of the knitted nylon fabric used in stockings
These worn out nylon stockings will be reprocessed and made into parachutes for army fliers c. 1942
In organic chemistry, an amide, also known as an organic amide or a carboxamide, is a compound with the general formula R−C(=O)−NR′R″, where R, R', and R″ represent any group, typically organyl groups or hydrogen atoms. The amide group is called a peptide bond when it is part of the main chain of a protein, and an isopeptide bond when it occurs in a side chain, as in asparagine and glutamine. It can be viewed as a derivative of a carboxylic acid with the hydroxyl group replaced by an amine group ; or, equivalently, an acyl (alkanoyl) group joined to an amine group.
Structure of acetamide hydrogen-bonded dimer from X-ray crystallography. Selected distances: C-O: 1.243, C-N, 1.325, N---O, 2.925 Å. Color code: red = O, blue = N, gray = C, white = H.