By 1934, Carothers had a promising development: He combined the chemicals amine, hexamethylene diamine, and adipic acid. It created fibers! But they were weak. They had formed by the polymerizing ...

For example, Professor Stephen Wallace is using microorganisms to eat plastic bottles and produce adipic acid – a crucial ingredient in the manufacture of nylon, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

The researchers also discussed the use of engineered strains of P. putida and E. coli to synthesize adipic acid, a commercially important dicarboxylic acid, pyridine-dicarboxylic acids and beta ...