Improvement of the phase-transfer catalysis method for synthesis of glycidyl ether

A convenient procedure for the synthesis of aliphatic alkylglycidyl ether h as been studied. It has been found that the improved preparation of the alk ylglycidyl ether can be achieved by using fatty alcohol such as octanol and octadecanol with epichlorohydrin in the presence of phase-transfer catalys t (PTC) such as 1-alkyloxypropan-2-ol-3-trimethyl ammonium methylsulfate, 1 -alkyloxypropan-2-ol-3-melhyldiethanolammonium methylsulfate, alkyloxy-2-hy droxypropyldimethylamine and alkyloxy-2-hydroxypropyldiethanolamine, tetrab utylammonium bromide, etc. without water and other organic solvents. This m ethod, carried out in solid phase/organic phase (reactants and product them selves), has the following merits: (i) producing the solid by-products such as sodium chloride and sodium hydroxide which are easily removed by simple filtration, (ii) saving the amount of reactants used such as sodium chlori de and phase-transfer catalyst, and (iii! increasing the yields of glycidyl ethers. The yields of octylglycidyl ether and octadecylglycidyl ether are 92.0 and 91.7%, respectively. The amount of sodium hydroxide used can be sa ved by from 1.5 to 0.7 molar ratio with respect to octanol in comparison wi th those in the conventional method using PTC.