Question

How is Orlon prepared?

Answer 1

A fiber is known as acrylic if it contains at least $85\%$ acrylonitrile monomer. Acrylic fibers are synthetic fibers made from a polymer polyacrylonitrile. The first acrylic fibers were trademarked under the name Orlon.

Complete answer:
polymers are a substance consisting of very large molecules or macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. There are two types of polymers depending upon the synthesis- natural polymer and man-made polymer.
Acrylic fibers are synthetic fibers, and are made of polymer polyacrylonitrile. Polyacrylonitrile is also known as polyvinyl cyanide. It is a semi crystalline organic polymer, with molecular formula ${({C_3}{H_3}N)_n}$ . Almost all polyacrylonitrile resins are copolymers made from a mixture of monomer with acrylonitrile as the main monomer.
There are two broad types of polymerization which are- the addition or chain growth polymerization and condensation or step growth polymerization. Polyacrylonitrile is made by the addition or chain growth polymerization.
In chain growth polymerization, the molecules of the same monomer or different monomers add together on a large scale to form a polymer. The monomers used here are unsaturated compounds like alkenes, alkadienes etc this mode of polymerization leads to increase in chain length by either free radicals or ionic species.
Polyacrylonitrile formation- the addition polymerization of acrylonitrile in presence of a peroxide catalyst leads to the formation of polyacrylonitrile.
$nC{H_2} = CHCN\xrightarrow[{peroxide(catalyst)}]{{polymerisation}}{[ - C{H_2} - CH(CN) - ]_n}$

**Orlon is a polymer of vinyl cyanide. Orlon is a general trade mark name for polyacrylonitrile polymer.

Note:**
Homopolymers of polyacrylonitrile have been used as fiber used in hot gas filtration systems, sails in yatch and fiber reinforced concrete. But mostly copolymers containing polyacrylonitrile are used as fibers to make knitted clothing, like socks, sweaters as well as outdoor products like tents.