Mica as an efficient catalyst for the synthesis of benzoimidazole derivatives

Nowadays, clay mineral with unique features such as eco-friendly, cheap and nanoscale size has attracted much attention and applied in different industry and sciences [1]. Mica has a layered structure, each layer consists of some combinations of two sheet types with silicon tetrahedral and aluminum octahedral as basic units. Mica due to chemical stable in acid and alkali solution can be used as a heterogeneous catalyst in the various organic reactions [2]. Imidazoles due to their interesting biological activities are an important class of heterocyclic compounds in pharmaceutical industry. In continuation of our research, herein, an efficient and selective synthesis of imidazole derivatives 3 were carried out by using benzaldehyde 1 and o-phenylenediamine 2 in mild condition and high yield by use of mica as an efficient, eco-friendly and heterogeneous catalyst