Synthesis of Monoalkyl Glyceryl Ethers by Ring Opening of Glycidol with Alcohols in the Presence of Lewis Acids.

The present work deals with the production of monoalkyl glyceryl ethers (MAGEs) through a new reaction pathway based on the reaction of glycidol and alcohols catalyzed by Lewis acid-based catalysts. Glycidol is quantitatively converted with high selectivity (99 %) into MAGEs under very mild reaction conditions (80 °C and 0.01 mol % catalyst loading) in only 1 h using Al(OTf)3 or Bi(OTf)3 as catalyst. The proposed method enhances the choice of possible green synthetic approaches for the production of value-added products such as MAGEs.