Reaction between 2-octanol and triethylamine was carried out at the optimum condition, which was reported in our previous paper, but the yield in this reaction was only 36%. This may be due to steric hindrance effect of α-methyl group of 2-octanol.
Authors then attempted the reaction after converting the sec-alcohol to primary alcohol by oxyethylation, and the resulted alcohol was reacted with triethylamine using Cu-Cr-Mn-O catalyst under moderate temperature and pressure of H₂. In this reaction, it was confirmed that there was no decomposition of oxyethylene chain unless the reaction temperature was over 270°C and 72.2% yield of tertiary amine containing monoalkylether was obtained under the reaction temperature of 270°C.
By applying this result for trioxyethylene glycol alkyl (C₁₂C₁₇, except C₁₅) ether, five kind of tertiary amines having these alkyl group were obtained. By using these tertiary amines as the raw material, various new cationic surfactants and amine oxides were prepared. Of these surfactants, N, N-diethyl-N-trioxyethylene alkyl amine oxide (R(OCH₂CH₂)₃N(C₂H₅)₂) showed especially very interesting surface activity.