Designing of thermally stable amide functionalized benzimidazolium perchlorate ionic liquid for transamidation of primary carboxamides

In the present work, we have designed and synthesized a thermally stable catalyst based on functionalized benzimidazolium perchlorate ionic liquid and tested its efficacy towards metal free and solvent free transamidation of amides and amines. The ionic liquid comprising the perchlorate ion has shown remarkably better activity than those which contain other anions and accordingly a plausible mechanism for the catalytic activity is arrived. The developed catalytic system has shown excellent activity towards the transamidation of alicyclic and aromatic amines with acetamide, benzamide and p-nitrobenzamide under mild conditions. Furthermore, the transamidation of nicotinamide with benzylamine in presence of the ionic liquid catalyst was found to occur with very good yields and thus provides a facile route for the synthesis of pharmaceutically significant compounds. The catalyst has exhibited very good thermal stability upto 203 degrees C and very good recyclability upto 5 runs without significant loss in its activity. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.