An efficient green protocol for the synthesis of tetra-substituted imidazoles catalyzed by zeolite BEA: effect of surface acidity and polarity of zeolite

In the present study, the catalytic activity of various medium (H-ZSM-5) and large pore (H-BEA, H-Y, H-MOR) zeolites were studied as solid acid catalysts. The zeolite H-BEA is found to be an efficient catalyst for the synthesis of 1-benzyl-2,4,5-triphenyl-1H-imidazoles through one-pot, 4-component reaction (4-CR) between benzil, NH₄OAc, substituted aromatic aldehydes and benzyl amine. The hydrophobicity, Si/Al ratio and acidic properties of zeolite BEA were well improved by controlled dealumination. The synthesized materials were characterized by various characterization techniques such as XRD, ICP-OES, BET, NH₃-TPD, FT-IR, pyridine FT-IR, ²⁷Al and ¹H MAS NMR. It has been observed that the dealumination of the parent zeolite H-BEA (12) results in the enhanced strength of Brønsted acidity up to a certain Si/Al ratio which is attributed to the inductive effect of Lewis acidic EFAl species, leading to the higher activity of the zeolite BEA (15) catalyst towards the synthesis of 1-benzyl-2,4,5-triphenyl-1H-imidazoles under thermal solvent-free conditions with good to excellent yields. Using the present catalytic synthetic protocol, diverse tetra-substituted imidazoles, which are among the significant biologically active scaffolds, were synthesized in high yield within a shorter reaction time. The effect of polarity, surface acidity and extra framework Al species of the catalysts has been well demonstrated by means of pyridine FT-IR, and ²⁷Al and ¹H MAS NMR. The solvent-free synthetic protocol makes the process environmentally benign and economically viable.