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Preparation
of
Acrylamide-
Acrylamide, used to produce several economically useful polymers, is obtained by addition of a water molecule to acrylo nitrile as follows.
CH2=CHCN + H2O -->CH2=CHCONH2
This reaction is achieved by nitrile hydratase (erroneously called a nitrilase) activity obtained from Rhodococcus. The bacterial cells are immobilized in a polyacrylamide gel, and are used at 10˚C and pH 8.0-8.5 in semibatchwise process keeping the substrate concentration below 3%. About 4000 tons of acrylamide is produced every year using this process.
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