H<sub>3</sub>PW<sub>12</sub>O<sub>40</sub> — A selective, environmentally benign, and reusable catalyst for the preparation of methoxymethyl and ethoxymethyl ethers and their deprotections under mild conditions
methoxymethyl (MOM) and ethoxymethyl (EOM) ethers in the presence of catalyticamounts of H3PW12O40 at room temperature under solvent-free conditions. Selective protection of primary and secondary alcohols in the presence of phenols and tertiary alcohols was achieved by this method. Deprotection of these ethers to their parent alcohols was also performed using this catalyst in ethanol under reflux conditions