Electrochemical maintenance of activity of copper-containing catalyst in copper-catalysed nitrile hydrolysis process, and production of amides by such hydrolysis process

摘要

The activity of a copper-containing catalyst used in the production of amides from nitriles by hydrolysis wherein the copper-containing catalyst serves as at least one electrode in an electrochemical reactor containing a solution including the nitrile to be hydrolysed and water is maintained by applying a direct current to the reactor at least intermittently. The copper containing electrode comprises elemental copper and the direct current may be applied to maintain the partial surface coverage at an average thickness of 0.75 to 12.5 monolayers of ionic copper. The hydrolysis of acrylonitrile to acrylamide is described.