Effective and sustainable depolymerization of Nylon 66 - a transamidation for the complete recycling of polyamides

Abstract

The transamidation of polyamides with short primary amides is reported as an effective recycling technique. This novel depolymerization method is robust and only utilizes cheap and renewable reagents. The process requires a Nb2O5 catalyst, assisted by NH3, and operates at relatively mild reaction conditions (i.e. 200 °C and 3 bar NH3).