Aluminium triflate: an efficient recyclable Lewis acid catalyst for the aminolysis of epoxides

Epoxides are powerful starting materials for a range of useful materials and can be converted into, amongst others, amino alcohols. In this work, a range of epoxides was ring-opened using various alkyl- and arylamines under the action of aluminium triflate as a catalyst. This catalyst was found to be highly active, producing the desired amino alcohol products in high yields with low catalyst loadings. Additionally, it was shown that the aluminium triflate catalyst is recyclable by simple extraction into water and may be re-used several times.