The general procedure for the preparation of N,N-dibenzyl-2-aminoethanol is as follows:
1. dibenzylamine (0.5 g, 2.5 mmol), ethylene carbonate (0.446 g, 5 mmol) and tetraethylammonium iodide (0.215 g, 0.83 mmol) were mixed in a reaction flask at room temperature.
2. The mixture was heated to 140 °C and the reaction was stirred at this temperature for 26 hours to form a suspension.
3. After completion of the reaction, the reaction mixture was diluted with ethyl acetate and subsequently extracted with 0.5 M sodium hydroxide solution (10 mL).
4. The aqueous phase was washed with ethyl acetate and all organic phases were combined.
5. The organic phase was washed twice with saturated brine to remove water-soluble impurities.
6. The organic layer was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate and filtered to remove the desiccant.
7. The filtrate was concentrated under reduced pressure to give the crude product.
8. The crude product was purified by rapid chromatography on silica gel using ethyl acetate/hexane (1:2, v/v) as eluent.
9. The target fraction was collected and concentrated under reduced pressure to afford N,N-dibenzyl-2-aminoethanol (0.5 g, 83% yield) as an oil.
