Question

Write a short note of ammonolysis.

Answer 1

Ammonolysis is a word formed by the combination of two words: “amine” and ‘lysis”. The amine refers to the amino group $\text{-N}{{\text{H}}_{\text{2}}}$ and “lysis” means splitting or fission. Hence ammonolysis refers to the fission of a molecule in reaction with ammonia.

Complete Step by Step Answer
A chemical reaction in which a chemical compound is split into two parts on reaction with ammonia or any other ammines is called the “ammonolysis” reaction. Examples of some of the ammonolysis reactions are as follows:
-The replacement of the halogen atom by an amine group in an alkyl halide:
${\text{R - X + R' - N}}{{\text{H}}_{\text{2}}} \to {\text{R' - NH - R + HX}}$
-The synthesis of the peptides:
A common example is the reaction of any primary or secondary amine with carboxylic acid or a carboxylic acid derivative to form an amide. This reaction is widely used for the synthesis of “peptides”. The carboxylic acid derivatives here can be esters, anhydrides, acid halides, or any other activated species.
This reaction finds usage in the degradation of PET or Polyethylene Terephthalate which belongs to the polymer family and is used for many purposes such as plastic bottles filter clothes as it is thermoplastic polymer. These PET polymers can be degraded by ammonolysis reactions. For example, PET reacts with DETA (diethylene triamine) resulting in the formation of different other amine structures.

Note
Ammonolysis is a type of solvolysis reaction which is a type of nucleophilic substitution reaction or elimination reaction where the nucleophile is a solvent molecule. When the solvent molecules are alcohols, then it is called `alcoholysis”, when it is ammonia then is called “ammonolysis' ' while in case of amines it is called “aminolysis”.