<P> All polyamides are made by the formation of an amide function to link two molecules of monomer together . The monomers can be amides themselves (usually in the form of a cyclic lactam such as caprolactam), α, ω - amino acids or a stoichiometric mixture of a diamine and a diacid . Both these kinds of precursors give a homopolymer . Polyamides are easily copolymerized, and thus many mixtures of monomers are possible which can in turn lead to many copolymers . Additionally many nylon polymers are miscible with one another allowing the creation of blends . </P> <P> Production of polymers requires the repeated joining of two groups to form an amide linkage . In this case this specifically involves amide bonds, and the two groups involved are an amine group, and a terminal carbonyl component of a functional group . These react to produce a carbon - nitrogen bond, creating a singular amide linkage . This process involves the elimination of other atoms previously part of the functional groups . The carbonyl - component may be part of either a carboxylic acid group or the more reactive acyl halide derivative . The amine group and the carboxylic acid group can be on the same monomer, or the polymer can be constituted of two different bifunctional monomers, one with two amine groups, the other with two carboxylic acid or acid chloride groups . </P> <P> The condensation reaction is used to synthetically produce nylon polymers in industry . Nylons must specifically include an straight chain (aliphatic) monomer . The amide link is produced from an amine group (alternatively known as an amino group), and a carboxylic acid group . The hydroxyl from the carboxylic acid combines with a hydrogen from the amine, and gives rise to water, the elimination byproduct that is the namesake of the reaction . </P> <P> As an example of condensation reactions, consider that in living organisms, Amino acids are condensed with one another by an enzyme to form amide linkages (known as peptides). The resulting polyamides are known as proteins or polypeptides . In the diagram below, consider the amino - acids as single aliphatic monomers reacting with identical molecules to form a polyamide, focusing on solely the amine and acid groups . Ignore the substituent R groups--under the assumption the difference between the R groups are negligible: </P>

What type of reaction leads to the production of polymers