Aluminum compounds and use thereof

Abstract

An aluminum compounds represented by the following general formula (1): Al(R1—SO3)1(R2)m(R3)n   (1) wherein R1 is a hydrocarbon group which may be substituted, R2 is a hydrocarbon group which may be substituted, an aliphatic hydrocarbonoxy group which may be substituted, or a halogen atom, R3 is an aromatic hydrocarbonoxy group which may be substituted, and 1, m and n are independently a number of 0 to 3, with the proviso that 1+m+n equals 3, and 1 is not 0, an acid catalyst comprising the aluminum compound, and a process for producing an ester, acetal, ketal, ether or alkyl glycoside making use of the catalyst. The catalyst is suitable for use in a variety of acid-catalyzed reactions of alcohols, i.e., reactions with carbonyl compounds, such as esterification, transesterification, acetalization and ketalization, etherification, ring-opening reactions of epoxy compounds, etc. in addition to the above-described respective reactions, is not deactivated by alcoholysis, has a sufficient activity, can easily control a reaction catalyzed thereby and scarcely causes side reactions. Consequently, the use of the catalyst permits the production of the intended product at a high yield from starting materials used in an almost equimolar proportion.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.