Continuous Synthesis of Tri- and Tetrasubstituted Imidazoles via a Multicomponent Reaction under Microreactor Conditions

Using a modified Radziszewski reaction, a procedure has been optimized for the generation of tri- and tetrasubstituted imidazoles via microreactor technology. Optimization included the search for a suitable solvent mixture, temperature and reaction time. Finally, the generality of the optimized reaction was tested using different starting materials. It was possible to create a variety of tri- and tetrasubstituted imidazoles in moderate to good yields via a continuous procedure. © 2006 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.