Sulfuric acid immobilized on silica: an efficient reusable catalyst for selective hydrolysis of the terminal O-isopropylidene group of sugar derivatives

Sulfuric acid immobilized on silica proved to be an efficient catalyst for selective hydrolysis of the terminal O-isopropylidene group of sugar derivatives. The method is very simple and economic for large-scale synthesis in which the catalyst is recovered and reused for several runs. Reactions with di-O-isopropylidene derivatives of d-glucose, d-mannose, d-fructose and l-sorbose led to the formation of the corresponding mono-O-isopropylidene derivatives in good to excellent yields.