Solvent-free thermal dehydration of pentitols on zeolites

Dehydration Of D-arabinitol, ribitol, and xylitol at high temperature in the presence of molecular sieves without solvent in an argon atmosphere is described. Products arising after the dehydration-cyclization (cyclodehydration) reaction with retention or inversion of the configuration of asymmetric carbon atoms, were observed. Complete analytical separations of exhaustively O-acetylated reaction products were achieved by means of GC. The chemical structures of the compounds obtained were assigned using co-injection with standards.