ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

Characterisation of intermediates in the production of eta-caprolactam

Abstract: The commercially important polymer Nylon 6 is manufactured by ring-opening polymerization of eta-caprolactam. Industrially, eta-caprolactam is made by the Beckmann rearrangement of cyclohexanone oxime. Recent work at Southampton has shown that a silicon-doped faujsitic aluminophosphate; SAPO-37, is able to achieve near-quantitative yields of eta-caprolactam at temperatures as low as 130 °C. A QENS study of the diffusion of cyclohexanone oxime in SAPO-37 showed that while it was mobile below 110 °C, at 120 °C it is almost immobile. This may be explained by binding of the oxime to the SAPO framework to form a stable intermediate, before conversion to eta-caprolactam at 130 °C. The aim of this proposal is to investigate the behaviour of the oxime as a function of temperature using MAPS in order to characterise any intermediates present.

Principal Investigator: Professor Robert Raja
Experimenter: Dr Ian Silverwood
Experimenter: Dr Alexander O'Malley
Experimenter: Professor Stewart Parker
Experimenter: Dr Stephanie Richardson
Experimenter: Professor Richard Catlow

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1520449

ISIS Experiment Number: RB1520449

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
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Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Professor Robert Raja et al; (2015): Characterisation of intermediates in the production of eta-caprolactam, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1520449

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.