Patent ID: 8569444

Claim:
A process for producing a polyalkylene glycol derivative of the formula (X): R—(OA) n OH (X) wherein R represents a hydrocarbon group having 1 to 7 carbon atoms, a protective group of a hydroxyl group, a protective group of an amino group, a protective group of an aldehyde group, a protective group of a carboxyl group or a protective group of a mercapto group; OA is an oxyalkylene group having 2 to 4 carbon atoms; and n is an average number of moles of the oxyalkylene group added and is 600 to 2000, the process comprising the following steps (A), (B), (C) and (D): Step (A): a step of adding 5 to 50% by mol of an alkali catalyst to a compound represented by the formula (Y): R—OH (Y) wherein R represents a hydrocarbon group having 1 to 7 carbon atoms, a protective group of a hydroxyl group, a protective group of an amino group, a protective group of an aldehyde group, a protective group of a carboxyl group or a protective group of a mercapto group, Step (B): a step of reacting an alkylene oxide having 2 to 4 carbon atoms under a condition of 50 to 130° C. until an average number of moles of the oxyalkylene group OA added reaches a range of 5 to 500 to obtain a polyalkylene glycol derivative, Step (C): a step of adding 10 to 5000% by mass of a hydrocarbon solvent to the polyalkylene glycol derivative of the step (B) to dilute it and removing remaining water by azeotropy, and Step (D): a step of reacting an alkylene oxide having 2 to 4 carbon atoms with the polyalkylene glycol derivative of the step (B) under a condition of 50 to 130° C. until an average number of moles of the oxyalkylene group OA added reaches a range of 600 to 2000.