Process for the preparation of aliphatic tertiary amides

Abstract

Abstract This invention discloses a process for the preparation of aliphatic tertiary amides which comprises reacting a fatty acid represented by the general formula R1COOH wherein R1 is a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group having one to six carbon atoms and ammonia directly with an alcohol represented by the general formula R2OH wherein R2 is an alkyl group having one to four carbon atoms at a temperature of 100* C. to 800* C. under pressure, said ammonia and alcohol being employed in amounts of 0.8 to five moles and 1.5 to ten moles per mole of fatty acid, respectively. In this process, there may be additionally employed a catalyst to accelerate the rate of reaction. Also, in this invention all or part of starting materials remaining unreacted and/or by-products may be recycled to the starting reaction mixture, thereby enabling the yield of the desired aliphatic tertiary amides to be remarkably improved. In addition, the removal of the water which is produced during the course of reaction assists the present process to be further improved. Thus, according to the present invention, aliphatic tertiary amides can be simply produced with excellent yields from the raw materials which are readily available at low cost, as opposed to the conventional process employing as a starting material dialkylamines which are difficult to obtain in the purified form.

Inventors

• 👤 Saburo Senoo
• 👤 Yohei Fukuoka
• 👤 Katuyoshi Sasaki

Bibliographic Details