Qiana ( ) is a silky

nylon Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers composed of polyamides ( repeating units linked by amide links).The polyamides may be aliphatic or semi-aromatic. Nylon is a silk-like thermoplastic, generally made from pe ...

fiber developed in 1962 at the

DuPont Experimental Station The DuPont Experimental Station is the largest research and development facility of DuPont. Located on the banks of the Brandywine Creek in Wilmington, Delaware, it is home to some of the most important discoveries of the modern chemical indus ...

by Stanley Brooke Speck. The fiber was named qiana when introduced by DuPont in 1968. Initially intended for high-end fashions, it became a popular material in the 1970s for faux-silk men's shirts, displaying bold patterns. The shirts were generally cut tight and included wide collars to fit over the collars of the double-knit suit coats, which were worn popularly to discos. Qiana is described in U.S. patent 3249591 as a

polyamide A polyamide is a polymer with repeating units linked by amide bonds. Polyamides occur both naturally and artificially. Examples of naturally occurring polyamides are proteins, such as wool and silk. Artificially made polyamides can be made through ...

fabric having improved resilience and silk-like hand, combined with superior wash-wear performance. The

polymer A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic a ...

is prepared from 4,4'-diaminodicyclohexylmethane and

dodecanedioic acid Dodecanedioic acid (DDDA) is a dicarboxylic acid with the formula . A white solid, the compound finds a variety of applications ranging from polymers to materials. The unbranched compound is the most commonly encountered C12 dicarboxylic acid. ...

. Although the fiber described in the above patent provided "wash and wear" properties because of the chemical composition of the polymer, fabrics from this fiber did not have the aesthetic properties of silk desired in the total qiana product package. To provide silk-like aesthetics differential shrinkage technology was added to the basic polymer technology wherein half of the fibers in a yarn bundle shrink more than the other half. This technology is described in U.S. Patent # 3,416,302 granted December 17, 1968, to Dr. Robert H. Knospe, assignor to E.I. du Pont de Nemours.

References

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External links

U.S. Patent 3249591 filed June 1, 1962, issued May 3, 1966Trademark 72298898 filed May 23, 1968, issued November 19, 1968
DuPont products Brand name materials Synthetic fibers Products introduced in 1962