00 ml aliquot was introduced into a tared flask and accurately weighed analysis of ketoamide content was performed immediately by adding 25 00 ml of a solution containing an internal analytical standard followed by injection into a high pressure liquid chromatograph weight percent of ketoamide in the reaction mixture was thus determined directly the percent yield of ketoamide was calculated it is clear that at any reasonable reaction time the yield of ketoamide is a function of ph and to obtain a reasonable yield the ph must be controlled within a specified region e g 0 5 to 3 0 to obtain somewhat better yields the ph must be restricted even further to the range 0 8 to 2 3 to obtain the best yields the ph should be restricted to the range 1 4 2 0 operation outside these limits reduces the yield probably for either of 2 reasons a at low ph below 0 5 because the ketoamide itself is being hydrolyzed rapidly b at higher ph above 3 0 because the spiro compound does not hydrolyze at any appreciable rate these results dramatically demonstrate the criticality of ph control in this hydrolysis table______________________________________spiro hydrolysisyield of cyclohexanone 2 carboxamideas a function of ph and timetime min ph 0 10 20 30 40 50 60______________________________________0 05 5 6 20 3 4 0 3 lt 0 3 0 00 6 40 76 66 56 47 41 350 8 16 76 76 66 60 56 511 0 12 79 77 77 69 69 641 2 16 76 78 78 76 75.