The sensitivity of polyamides toward oxygen at elevated temperatures has been clearly recognized and has been the subject of intensive studies. The corresponding investigations have been concerned mainly with the elucidation of the mechanisms of the thermal oxidation. In case of nylon-6, it has been shown that the primary attack takes the place of the N-vicinal methylene group whose particular reactivity in turn appears to depend on its conformation with respect to the carbonamide group. Its reactivity, however, is in any case appreciably higher than that of any of the remaining methylene groups, which seem not to be characterized by differentiable activities and are, therefore, attacked according to a statistical pattern as indicated by the composition of hydrolysis products (w-amino acids and alkyl amines of extensively thermo- oxidized nylon (365-368). The formation of water, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide acetaldehyde, formaldehyde, and methanol has been attributed to the breakdown of peroxide radicals and peroxides that resulted from the primary attack on the N-vicinal methylene group 1369. Additional products of thermo-oxidative decomposition of nylon-6 are carboxylic acids amines, nitriles, and cyclopentanone. Essentially the same products are obtained from the thermal decomposition of certain caprolactam oxidation products. It has been shown [370] that at relatively mild temperatures between 70 and 100 C, exposure of caprolactam to air results in the formation of hydroperoxy-e-caprolactam, which converts easily to adipic acid monoa- mide. Since caprolactam is always present during polymerization and in the resulting equilib rium polymer, these reactions and the effect of their extent on the molecular weight and the type and concentration of end groups of the corresponding nylon-6 polyamide have been studied in some detail, C371]. It was found that the decomposition of the caprolactam hydroperoxide was catalyzed by the adipic acid monoamide and that the latter acts as a chain terminator during the polymerization process. The corresponding polymer exhibited characteristics resembling that of polymers obtained by polymerizing caprolactam in the presence of carboxylic acids. As the extent of peroxidation increases, the molecular weight of the corresponding polyamide