Ionophore silica-coated magnetite nanoparticles as a recyclable heterogeneous catalyst for one-pot green synthesis of 2,4,5-trisubstituted imidazoles.

Novel multi-SO3H functionalized strong Brønsted acidic ionic liquid coated magnetite nanoparticles have been prepared and applied as catalyst for the synthesis of 2,4,5-trisubstituted imidazoles. The results showed that a novel catalyst was very efficient for the reaction and could be magnetically separated and reused at least 6 times with less reduction in its catalytic activity. Operational simplicity, low cost of the catalyst used, high yields, environmental friendliness, wide applicability, reusability and easy recovery of the catalyst using an external magnet are the most important features of this methodology. The catalyst was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-Ray diffraction analysis (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), dynamic laser scattering (DLS) and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM).