The ionic hydrolysis of vinyl lactams in an acid medium

1. It was established that vinyl lactams are hydrolyzed by an ionic mechanism in presence of sulfuric acid. It was shown, using vinylcaprolactam as starting substance, that the reaction yields lactams and acetaldehyde, 2. A procedure was elaborated for quantitative determination of vinylcaprolactam and vinylpyrrolidone. It was shown that the completeness of the determination depends upon the temperature, the duration of the experiment and the concentration of the acid used.