Preparation of methacrylamides

Claim 1

In a process for the synthesis of a methacrylamide comprising a. reacting a methacrylic ester with an amine in an organic solvent in the presence of a basic catalyst to yield an intermediate salt, b. removing the salt from solution, c. washing the salt with an organic solvent, d. drying the salt, and e. hydrolyzing the salt with dilute acid to form the methacrylamide, the improvement wherein the solvent is an organic solvent having a boiling point above 100° C. and wherein the methacrylic ester has the general structure (I) ##STR7## the amine has the general structure (II) ##STR8## and the basic catalyst is selected from the group consisting of amides and alkoxides and wherein R 1 is a radical selected from the group consisting of alkyl radicals having from 1 to 10 carbon atoms, aryl radicals having from 6 to 12 carbon atoms, cycloalkyl radicals having from 5 to 12 carbon atoms, X is selected from the group consisting of HO- and R 2 -NH wherein R 2 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, alkyl radicals having from 1 to 20 carbon atoms, cycloalkyl radicals having from 5 to 12 carbon atoms, aryl radicals having from 6 to 12 carbon atoms, aralkyl radicals having from 7 to 13 carbon atoms and wherein R 3 and R 4 are the same or different radicals selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and tert. alkyl radicals having from 4 to 8 carbon atoms.