The term acrylic comes from the Latin word acryl meaning bitter/irritating/pungent. This is a good description of the chemicals used to manufacture acrylic fibres. Pungent is also a good description for the nasty fumes which emanate from burning acrylic fibres.

Acrylonitrile is the chemical used in the manufacture of acrylic fibres. Many acrylonitrile monomers are linked to form the acrylic polymer. Therefore, strictly speaking, acrylic should be referred to as polyacrylonitrile but the term acrylic has been adopted as a shorthand name for this fibre. Until 1952 acrylic was manufactured entirely from the monomer acrylonitrile. After this time it has been manufactured in conjunction with other monomer units such as vinyl chloride or vinyl acetate to form a copolymer. The proportions of acrylonitrile and other monomer which constitute the final acrylic fibre give rise to different forms of this fibre.

Acrylic: composed of at least 85% acrylonitrile and no more than 15% other monomer

Modacrylic: At least 35% but no more than 85% should be acrylonitrile with the remainder being made up of other monomer.

Solvents are used to dissolve the polymer prior to extrusion and spinning into the fibre. This differs from polyester and nylon where the polymer is in a molten form prior to spinning.