Transamidation amides

Acrylamide polymers in aqueous solution undergo thermal hydrolysis and cyclic imide formation. Acrylate, acrylamide and cyclic imide functional groups were detected when a poly(acrylamide) is heated at 150°C in water. The formation of intramolecular imide has been reported in literature. Moradi-Araghi, Hsieh and Westerman reported the formation of cyclic imide in acid, neutral and slightly basic media at 90° C.7 In acidic media, imide formation is favored. In neutral and basic media, both hydrolysis to acrylate and imide formation do occur, but hydrolysis is the dominant reaction. We speculate the high conversion of amine to amide is the result of transamidation, amidation and the nucleophilic addition of the amine to the glutarimide intermediate (Reaction 1). 

Note Transamidation (amide interchange) and transesterification (ester interchange) are ex-... 

Transamidation. Polyacrylamide reacts with primary amines such as hydrazine [302-01-2], N2H4, (54) and hydroxjlamine [7803-49-8]. NH O, (55—57) to form substituted amides with loss of ammonia. 

MPD-1 fibers may be obtained by the polymeriza tion of isophthaloyl chloride and y -phenylenediamine in dimethyl acetamide with 5% lithium chloride. The reactants must be very carefully dried since the presence of water would upset the stoichiometry and lead to low molecular weight products. Temperatures in the range of 0 to —40° C are desirable to avoid such side reactions as transamidation by the amide solvent and acylation of y -phenylenediamine by the amide solvent. Both reactions would lead to an imbalance in the stoichiometry and result in forming low molecular weight polymer. Fibers are dry spun direcdy from solution. 

It is generally accepted that transamidation is not a concerted reaction, but occurs through the attack of a free end on the amide group via aminolysis (eg, eq. 4) or acidolysis (eg, eq. 3) (65). Besides those ends always present, new ends are formed by degradation processes, especially hydrolysis (eq. 5), through which the amide groups are in dynamic equiUbrium with the acid and amine ends. 

Recently, such a procedure has been used by Wu and Shanks [22] upon a preparation of partially hydrophobized polyacrylamide (PAAm). In this work, the transamidation reaction has been employed to convert amide groups of the parent polymer to the alkylamide groups of the modified PAAm. Scheme 2 shows the reaction chart for the case of the N-isopropylamide derivative. 

Another degradation reaction observed in suspension was the formation of covalent insulin dimers [134][136], These involve isopeptide links between two insulin molecules, that result from a transamidation reaction mainly between the B-chain N-terminus of one insulin molecule, and one of the four amide side chains in the A-chain (principally AsnA21) of the second insulin molecule. 

The molecular weight increases with increasing conversion. Regulation of the molecular weight can be achieved by adding small amounts of substances (e.g., benzoic acid) that can react with the polyamide chains by transamidation. Because of the transamidation reaction and hydrolysis of amide bonds, an equilibrium molecular-weight distribution is finally attained (see Sect. 4.1). 

The mechanism of the caprolactam polymerization, i. e. the transamid-ation reaction catalysis by the system imide + salt can be interpreted by a nucleophillic attack of the amide anion on the carbonyl group of the imide which represents the strongest electrophillic reagent in the polymerizing system. 

The action of bases on caprolactam or amide groups of the polymer molecule is not limited to the disproportionation and transamidation reactions which are directly involved in the polymerization mechanism. A more detailed study of the polymerization kinetics has shown that the... 

Carboxylic acids with strongly electron-withdrawing groups, for example trifluoro-acetic or 2,4,6-trinitrobenzoic acid [22], are readily converted into esters or amides. The products can, however, be unusually sensitive toward attack by nucleophiles and can readily undergo hydrolysis, transesterification, or transamidation. 2,4,6-Tris(trifluoromethyl)benzoic acid has been reported to undergo conversion into the acyl chloride or esters only with difficulty [23]. 

NH3 or RNH2 or R2NH Amide formation from carboxylic acid derivatives (mild) or from carboxylic acids (A technical synthesis of nylon-6,6) transamidation [capro-lactame —> nylon-6 (perlon)] Peptide synthesis (Section 6.4.3)... 

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