Process for producing epoxyorganoalkoxysilanes

Claim 1

A process for producing epoxyorganoalkoxysilanes from reactants which contain nitrogenous impurities which comprises reacting a) an ethylenically unsaturated epoxide of the formula: wherein R can be a single bond, alkylene or oxyalkylene, optionally containing alkyl pendant groups; R¹ can be hydrogen, alkyl or oxyalkyl, straight, branched or cyclic; R² and R³ can individually be hydrogen, alkyl or oxyalkyl, straight, branched or cyclic, or both R² and R³ can be either alkylene or oxyalkylene and combine together to form a 5 to 12 carbon cyclic ring, optionally containing alkyl pendants; and the number of carbon atoms in R, R¹, R² and R³ are such that the total number of carbons in the epoxide is from 4 to 50; with b) an alkoxysilane of the formula: R - S -(OR⁵) 3-x ; wherein R⁴ and R⁵ are alkyl groups individually containing from 1 to 10 carbon atoms, and x is 0, 1 or 2; in the presence of a catalytically effective amount of a rhodium catalyst; wherein at least one of said epoxide and said alkoxysilane contain nitrogenous impurities; to produce an epoxyorganoalkoxysilane of the formula: wherein R, R¹, R², R³, R⁴, R⁵ and x are as defined.