HI Lisa,

Due to intermolecular hydrogen bonding and high crystallinity polyamides show very limited solubility in common solvents. N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone may be a better option than phenol.

Good solvents for all types of polyamides are polar solvents containing Lewis acids that can complex with amides, e.g. N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone in LiCl.

Hope that helps

Thank you, Vidhura, that helped a lot! Lisa

Dear Lisa,

Firstly, I believe that is not very easy to answer at your question, because the solubility of polyamides (your case, phenol as solvent) is determined by the number of amide groups (-CONH-) on the macromolecular chains (so, by the type of polyamide), by the molecular weights, the conditions to obtain the solutions (e.g. temperature), and other factors. Thus, it is expected to solve easier PA6 or PA 6,6 than PA 12, which is given as being very resistant at various solvents. However, some typical solvents for polyamides such acids (Sulfuric acid, Formic acid, Hydrochloric acid, Hydrofluoric acid, Nitric acid, Phosphoric acid, Acetic acid (glacial)...), cresols, phenols,  etc. can be used successfully also in the case of PA 12. Please consider also that meta-cresol and hexafluoro-2-isopropanol (HFIP) were used to characterize the polyamides by GPC/SEC (but the concentration of polyamide is low in these solutions). I will attach some documentation that can help in the relation to the chemical resistance of polyamides…

Finally, it is important to do the test by considering your specific case/requirements. Maybe this information can be helpfully, good luck in your research and best regards,

Marius

https://www.agilent.com/cs/library/applications/5991-0485EN.pdf