Basic GO-Imidazolium ionic liquid as a recoverable nanocatalyst for the synthesis of pyrrole derivatives

Ionic liquid with basic properties is a significant category in the wide-ranging ionic liquid field. Ionic liquids are mostly made of ions and ion pairs. They are known as powerful solvents which have potential applications. Since the 1999 review by Welton which is about room temperature ionic liquids, ionic liquids have grown as a motivating research area in the last 15 years. Some ionic liquids are liquid at room temperature include some nitrogen-based compounds. Among them, imidazolium-based ionic liquids are the most important ones. In imidazole-based ionic liquids, their physical properties like melting point and acidity-basicity could be adjusted by changing the alkyl substituents and ion pairs. Most of room temperature ionic liquids involve bulky organic cations such as 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium, 1-alkylpyridinium and ammonium ion. To have heterogeneous nanocatalysts using ionic liquids, it was studied that carbonaceous substrates with high surface area like graphene oxide could be the best choice.

To this purpose and to have heterogeneous basic nanocatalyst with high surface area and significant catalytic activity, basic GO-Imidazolium ionic liquid was synthesized in this research. Here, N-methyl imidazole was used as cation, HCO₃^- as anion and GO as solid support to form basic ionic liquid nanocatalyst and its catalytic ability was used in synthesis of pyrroles as a significant N-heterocycle compound with important biological and pharmacological activity.