Acid-catalysed synthesis and deprotection of dimethyl acetals in a miniaturised electroosmotic flow reactor

Through incorporating a series of polymer-supported acid catalysts into a miniaturised EOF-based flow reactor, we demonstrate a clean and efficient technique for the protection of aldehydes as their respective dimethyl acetal. In addition, we also report the acid catalysed deacetalisation of 11 dimethyl acetals to their respective aldehyde. In all cases, the compounds described are obtained in high yield (>95%) and excellent purity (>99%) without the need for further product purification.