Screening of catalysts for transesterification of methyl 4-nitrobenzoate (5a) with glycidol (GD)^a.

Entry	Catalyst	Loading (mol%)	Yield (%)b
1	None	—	3
2	1-Cl	5	76
3	2-Cl	5	94
4	3-Cl	5	96
5	4-Cl	5	92
6	3-Cl	0.5	90 (87)c

^aReaction conditions: a mixture of MNB (1.0 mmol), GD (1.2 mmol), and catalyst (5 mol%) in hexane (0.5 mL) was refluxed (heater temp: 80 °C) for 1 hour.

^bYields were determined by ¹H NMR analysis. Values are an average of 2 runs.

^cYield of the isolated product.