The product was then distilled. Again, it was important to apply maximum levels of pressure so that the temperature of glycidyl pivalate did not exceed 70 °C. At higher temperature, lower yields were observed as a result of product decomposition. Conditions used in this work were to distill at 50 °C and 6 Torr. The distillation was also scaledependent and yield increased significantly as glycidyl pivalate volumes grew. This is likely a function of system configuration which can be further optimized upon implementation, and might benefit from a continuous distillation system such as a thin-film evaporator so as to minimize thermal history of the heat sensitive compound. Isolated yield reached 76% with material of 95 wt% purity. Optical activity of the epoxide samples was confirmed through derivatization with 4-nitro-2-bromo-imidazole. The samples synthesized from optically active epichlorohydrin were compared against those of racemic epichlorohydrin. The SFC traces indicated an enantiomeric ratio 97:3, 10 which was consistent with the high optical activity observed from the specific rotation.