Abstract
The reactions of ethylen imine with various aldehydes have been studied. Aralkyl and alkyl aldehydes (C1-C16) gave α-aminoalcohols (2) quantitatively under various conditions employed. On the other hand, such 1 : 1 adduct was not obtained from an equimolar reaction of ethylen imine with benzaldehyde or furfural. It was found that the reaction products were derived from two moles of ethylen imine and one mole of aldehyde through dehydration. The results of IR and NMR spectroscopies proved that they were ethylen imine derivatives of a Schiff's base (4, 5). In this reaction, bis-ethyleneimine derivatives (3) were not obtained. Mechanisms for the Schiff's base formation have been proposed
