New phosphonium molybdate‐promoted green, fast and selective catalytic procedure for the synthesis of trisubstituted imidazoles

Abstract

The compound 1,1′‐(ethane,1,2‐diyl)ditriphenylphosphonium hexamolybdate dimethylsulfoxide {C2H4[P(C6H5)3]2}{Mo6O19}·SO (CH3)2 (I) was prepared, and 1H‐NMR, 13C‐NMR, Fourier transform‐infrared, differential scanning calorimetry and single crystal X‐ray diffraction analysis were used to characterize the titled compound. Crystallographic data showed that compound I crystallized in the monoclinic crystal system in C2/c space group. The compound (I) was used for selective synthesis of 2,4,5‐tri aryl imidazole derivatives under solvent‐free conditions efficiently. Because of hindrance of the catalyst, the yields of products for aldehydes bearing para substituents are higher than the aldehydes bearing ortho substituents, and for aromatic aldehydes with meta substituents are very low.