A new and highly effective catalytic method for epoxide alkynylations has been developed that involves the chelation-controlled alkylation of heterosubstituted epoxides with Me3Al via pentacoordinate organoalluminum complexes by taking advantage of the exceedingly high affinity of aluminum to oxygen. For example, reaction of epoxy ether, (l-benzyloxy)-3-butene oxide (1), in toluene with PhC=CLi under the influence of catalytic Me3Al (10 mol%) proceeded smoothly at O degrees C for 5 h to furnish the alkynylation product, l-(benzyloxy)-6-phenylhex-5-yn-3-ol, in 76% yield [cf. 3% without Me3Al catalyst; 78% with stoichiometric Me3Al under similar conditions]. This represents the first catalytic procedure for the amphiphilic alkylation of epoxides. The participation of pentacoordinate Me3Al complexes of epoxy ethers of type 1 is emphasized by comparing the reactivity with the corresponding simple epoxide, 5-phenyl-l-pentene oxide, which was not susceptible to nucleophile attack of PhC=CLi with catalytic Me3A1 under similar conditions. The pentacoordinate complex formation of Me3Al with epoxy ether 1 is characterized by low-temperature C-13 and Al-27 NMR spectroscopy. This approach is also applicable to the selective alkynylation of tosyl aziridines with adjacent ether functionality, which provides a promising method for amino alcohol synthesis.