Copper-catalyzed direct aryl quaternization of N-substituted imidazoles to form imidazolium salts.

Diaryliodonium salts are employed to directly quaternize N-substituted imidazoles by using a copper catalyst to construct aryl imidazolium salts in moderate to excellent yields. This transformation is tolerant to a broad range of functional groups and provides a straightforward, efficient, and versatile route to synthesize aryl imidazolium as well as triazolium salts, especially the unsymmetric version.