Whether as an engineering plastic, a substitute metal or the fibres in carpets, clothing and other materials, nylon is all around us everyday in a range of applications.

The raw material for nylon is cyclohexane which owes its production from benzene and butene to palladium's unique hydrogen-absorbing qualities. A palladium membrane absorbs hydrogen atoms from butene molecules and passes them over to benzene where they react to produce cyclohexane (and leaving butadiene which is the raw material for synthetic rubber).