Patent ID: 8134011

Claim:
A method for preparing a mixture of oxazolidinium compounds, the method comprising reacting an aldehyde and/or a ketone with a secondary amine and a reactant selected from the group consisting of a halohydrin and an epoxide, under reaction conditions sufficient to produce a mixture of oxazolidinium compounds, where at least one oxazolidinium compound in the mixture has the formula: where R is a hydrocarbon substituent containing from 1 to 20 carbon atoms, a hydrocarbon substituent containing from 1 to 20 carbon atoms substituted with a heteroatom selected from the group consisting of oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus and combinations thereof; R 1 and R 2 each independently have 1 to 20 carbon atoms, may be linear, branched or cyclic; linear, branched or cyclic groups having 1 to 20 carbon atoms substituted with alkyl groups, aryl groups, alkylaryl groups, and aryl groups substituted with alkoxy groups, and X is selected from the group consisting of chlorine, fluorine, bromine or iodine.