Room-temperature polycondensation of β-amino acid derivatives,I. Polyamide from amino alcohols and acrylates

Acrylates, such as ethyl acrylate, add with amino alcohol to form N-(hydroxyalkyl) β-alanine ester and room-temperature polycondensation follows, forming polyamide in the presence of a basic catalysts, such as alkali metal alkoxide. The reaction medium has an influence on the course of the polycondensation; that is, N-(hydroxyalkyl) polyamide is formed in methanol solution and polyamide ether in other solvents, such as tetrahydrofuran. These two courses of the room-temperature polycondensation have been studied, and the reaction mechanism is discussed in this paper.