CONTINUOUS POLYMERIZATION PROCESS FOR PREPARING POLYAMIDES FROM OMEGA-AMINONITRILES

摘要

A continuous process for the polymerization of omega-aminonitriles (e.g., 6-aminocapronitriles) which is introduced at the top of a vertical multistage reactor being swept countercurrently with steam and polyamide (e.g., nylon 6) is recovered near the bottom of the vertical multistage reactor. By virtue of independent temperature control at each of the vertical stages of the multistage reactor, the polyamide recovered is typicaly characterized as having unreacted nitrile end groups of less than 20 gram equivalents per million grams of polyamide, and less than 25 gram equivalents of secondary amine branching per million grams of polyamide.