1. Sodium hydride (55%, 0.820 g) was slowly added to a solution of (2R)-2-amino-1-propanol (1.33 mL) in tetrahydrofuran (200 mL) at room temperature and the reaction mixture was stirred for 35 minutes.
2. Chloroethyl acetate (1.80 mL) was added dropwise to the reaction system over a period of 5 minutes at the same temperature and stirring was continued for 25 minutes.
3. The reaction mixture was heated to reflux and held for 17.5 hours.
4. Upon completion of the reaction, the mixture was allowed to cool to room temperature in air, followed by filtration.
5. The solvent in the filtrate was removed by evaporation under reduced pressure to give the crude product.
6. The crude product was purified using silica gel column chromatography (eluent: ethyl acetate/hexane) to afford (5R)-5-methyl-3-morpholinone (0.520 g, 26% yield) as an oily product.
