Synthesis of phenols functionalized nylon 6 by zinc acetate catalyst using the Mannich reaction to enhance the hydrophobic and dielectric properties was described in this paper. The structure of the phenol functionalized nylon 6 was established by FT-IR, NMR, MALDI-TOF, GPC, and DSC-TGA. The functionalized polymer has a decomposition temperature of about 400 °C and exhibits good thermal stability. The water contact angle measurement shows the functionalized polymer has hydrophobic nature with a contact angle of above 90° and the preliminary dielectric measurement shows the functionalized polymer has relatively low dielectric constant and loss. This thermally stable and hydrophobic polymer is potential materials for the electronic device application. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.