An investigation into the catalytic versatility of low toxicity azolium ions

Abstract

A somewhat unexpected observation made by our group that appropriately substituted pyridinium ions were capable of acting as Bronsted acid catalysts in the presence of protic additives (i.e. methanol) caught our attention. It is postulated that the addition of nucleophiles to these aprotic materials generate catalytically active acidic species in situ. This strategy was reasoned to be applicable to the design of catalysts based on the imidazolium ions with potential advantages over the pyridinium based molecules. These advantageous properties allowed for the design of additive controlled acidic molecules for use as catalysts which can be turned "on and off" in the presence of protic media, with the environmental impact of this novel catalyst also taken into account when designing the molecule.