Ytterbium perfluorooctanesulfonate as an efficient and recoverable catalyst for the synthesis of trisubstituted imidazoles

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/j.jfluchem.2008.03.009

Synthesis of trisubstituted imidazoles was successfully accomplished using rare earth(III) perfluorooctanesulfonates (RE(OPf)₃), RE = Sc, Y, La-Lu as catalysts in fluorous solvents. Ytterbium perfluorooctanesulfonates (Yb(OPf)₃) catalyze the high efficient synthesis of trisubstituted imidazoles in fluorous solvents. By simple separation, fluorous phase containing only catalyst can be reused several times.