Publication

Abstract : The reactions of N‐methyl imidazole with benzyl bromide and N‐isopropyl benzimidazole with either benzyl bromide or 2,4,6‐trimethyl benzyl bromide afforded the expected imidazolium/benzimidazolium salts, respectively. However, the reaction of N‐methyl imidazole/N‐isopropyl benzimidazole with tert‐butyl bromide results in an unexpected 1‐methyl imidazolium/benzimidazolium bromide. The latter products show a very low melting point without decomposition which suggests that they belong to the category of ionic liquids. Further, the treatment of N‐isopropyl imidazole/N‐isopropyl benzimidazole with 1,3‐bis(bromomethyl)‐2,4,6‐trimethylbenzene yielded 1,1′‐di(isopropyl)‐3,3′‐(mesityldimethylene)‐diimidazolium/dibenzimidazolium dibromide. In this paper, the syntheses and the spectroscopic characterizations of all the seven imidazolium/benzimidazolium salts and the synthesis of silver(I) complex of 1,1′‐di(isopropyl)‐3,3′‐(mesityldimethylene)‐dibenzimidazolium dibromide are reported.