Huls America Inc.

David Colvin

Chitoor S Subramaniam

Thomas V John

George W Bitler

Ortho esters of the structure ##STR1## wherein R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 are different or the same alkyl moieties and can be a saturated, unsaturated, branched, unbranched or cyclic alkyl moiety of 1-3 carbon atoms, are prepared by first anhydrously reacting hydrogen cyanide or a hydrogen cyanide derivative with a secondary alkanol and hydrogen chloride in the presence of an inert organic solvent. Upon the formation of the resulting imino ether hydrochloride, more secondary alkanol is added to form the ortho esters (I). 1,1-Dialkoxycycloalkanes of the structure ##STR2## wherein R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 correspond to R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 of structure (I), and n is an integer from 4 to 9, are prepared by reacting with the imino ether hydrochloride more secondary alkanol and a cycloalkanone having 5 to 10 carbon atoms.

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North Mobile, AL, United States of America

David Colvin