An iron-containing ionic liquid as recyclable catalyst for aryl grignard cross-coupling of alkyl halides

The ionic liquid butylmethylimidazolium tetrachloroferrate (bmim-FeCl4) was found to be a very effective and completely air stable catalyst for the biphasic Grignard cross-coupling with primary and secondary alkyl halides bearing beta-hydrogens. After simply decanting the product in the ethereal layer, the ionic liquid catalyst was successfully recycled four times.