The peracetylated galactose 2 (5 g, 12.

8 mmol) was added into

the reaction bottle. Then 50 mL of hydrogen bromide-acetic acid

(33%) was added dropwise at 0 °C. After reaction for 2 h at 25 °C,

150 mL of CH2Cl2 was added. The mixture was washed with ice

water, and the organic layer was dried with a desiccant (MgSO4).

After vacuum distillation, peracetylated a-galactosyl bromide 3

was provided in the yield of 97%.

The drying of MEK and pyridine is among commonly used applications of salting-out for binary mixtures
of solvent and water. The MEK/water azeotrope is just single phase at ambient temperature and the
addition of a salt produces two liquid phases and a solid/salt phase. The aqueous phase contains 4%
MEK and is seldom worth recovering. The MEK-rich phase is easily split into the azeotrope and a dry
MEK fraction.

The pyridine/water azeotrope, containing 43% of water, is also single phase but can be split into two
phases using sodium hydroxide or sodium sulphate, again leaving so little pyridine in the aqueous phase
that it is not economically worth recovering, subject of course to the cost of disposal of the aqueous
effluent.