Process for preparing alcohol derivatives

The present invention provides a process for preparing an alcohol derivative, where the alcohol derivative is an ester, acetal, ketal, ether glycoside, or alkyl glycoside, by reacting an alcohol with a carbonyl compound, alcohol, olefin, epoxy compound or saccharide, where C.sub.2-4 vicinal alkylene oxides are excluded, in the presence of (A) an aluminum alkoxide and (B) sulfuric acid or phosphoric acid.

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What is claimed is:

1. A process for preparing an alcohol derivative which comprises;

reacting an alcohol with an .alpha.-epihalohydrin or 1,2-epoxy compound represented by the following formula (2): ##STR3##

wherein, R.sup.2 represents a hydrogen atom or a substituted or unsubstituted saturated or unsaturated, linear or branched C.sub.1-24 aliphatic hydrocarbon group, A.sup.2 represents a C.sub.2-4 alkylene group, q is 0 to 100, and r is 0 or 1, withthe proviso that R.sup.2 represents a C.sub.2-24 aliphatic hydrocarbon group when r is 0, in the presence of (A) an aluminum alkoxide and (B) sulfuric acid or phosphoric acid, wherein said alcohol derivative is an ether having one molar epoxide adduct,

wherein a ratio of sulfuric acid to aluminum alkoxide is 1.25 to 1.5:1.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein the alcohol is in an amount of 0.5 to 5.0 moles per mole of epoxy compound.

3. The process of claim 1, wherein said aluminum alkoxide is selected from the group consisting of aluminum trimethoxide, aluminum triethoxide, aluminum triisopropoxide and aluminum triisobutoxide.

4. The process of claim 1, wherein (B) is sulfuric acid.

5. The process of claim 1, wherein (B) is phosphoric acid.

6. The process of claim 5, wherein the phosphoric acid is present in an amount of 0.67 to 1.2 moles per mole of (A).

7. The process of claim 1, wherein (A) is aluminum triisopropoxide and (B) is sulfuric acid.

8. The process of claim 1, wherein said alcohol is selected from the group consisting of methanol, ethanol, propanol, butanol, pentanol, hexanol, heptanol, octanol, nonanol, decanol, undecanol, dodecanol, tridecanol, tetradecanol, pentadecanol,hexadecanol, heptadecanol, octadecanol, nonadecanol, eicosanol, 2-ethylhexanol, 3,5-dimethylhexanol, oleyl alcohol and linoleyl alcohol; and alkylene oxide adducts thereof.

9. The process of claim 1, wherein said epoxy compound is selected from the group consisting of .alpha.-epichlorohydrin, .alpha.-epibromohydrin, .alpha.-epiiodohydrin 1,2,-epoxyhexane, 1,2-epoxyoctane, 1,2-epoxydecane, 1,2-epoxydodecane, butylglycidyl ether, octyl glycidyl ether and dodecyl glycidyl ether and glycidol.

10. The process of claim 1, wherein said ether is one of the following formula (3) ##STR4##

wherein R.sup.2, A.sup.2, q and r have the same meanings as described in claim 2, and one of R.sup.1a and R.sup.1b represents a hydrogen atom while the other one represents R.sup.1 --(OA.sup.1).sub.m -- in which R.sup.1 represents a saturated orunsaturated, linear or branched aliphatic hydrocarbon group having 1 to 36 carbon atoms in total, A.sup.1 represents a C.sub.2-4 alkylene group and m is 0 to 100.

11. The process of claim 1, wherein said alcohol derivative is a glycidyl ether and said process comprises reacting an alcohol with an .alpha.-epihalohydrin to form an ether and reacting the resulting ether with an alkali.

12. The process of claim 11, wherein said alkali is an alkali metal hydroxide or an alkaline earth metal hydroxide.

13. The process of claim 11, wherein said alkali is present in an amount of 1.0 to 4.0 moles per mole of .alpha.-epihalohydrin.

14. The process of claim 11, wherein said process further comprises hydrolyzing the glycidyl ether to obtain monoalkyl glyceryl ether.