A novel imidazolium-based acidic ionic liquid as an efficient and reusable catalyst for the synthesis of 2-aryl-1H-phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazoles

Abstract

A novel acidic ionic liquid based on imidazoliumcation is designed, synthesized, and successfully used as a catalyst for the one-pot synthesis of 2-aryl-1H-phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole derivatives. The remarkable feature of this new catalyst is its ethyleneoxy bridge which participates in dissolving organic compounds in ionic liquids. The application of this acidic ionic liquid is studied in a new one-pot method for the synthesis of imidazole derivatives under solvent-free conditions. The advantages of this method are the reusability of the catalyst, high conversion, short reaction time, and simple experimental procedure.