Mohammad Abbasi

Background: Imidazopyridines are a group of heterocyclic amines that have received much attention recently. Small changes in the chemical structure of these compounds cause large changes in their biological effects. Among this group of compounds, imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines are of great interest in medicine. Many commercially available drugs such as Zolpidem, Alpidem and Zolimidine contain an imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine moiety. Due to their wide applications in various fields, many synthetic methods have been proposed for the preparation of imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines. Aim: The aim of this study is the one-pot synthesis of imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines in the presence of cheap and available copper (II) acetate catalyst. Methodology: In this study, the reaction of enaminone derivatives in the vicinity of copper (II) acetate catalyst and sodium carbonate as a base has been investigated for one-pot synthesis of imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines. At first, the reaction conditions were optimized by solvent screening and using different amounts of substrates and catalysts at different temperatures. The obtained optimal conditions were used to prepare other pyridine derivatives. Findings: Achieving a new method for one-pot and one-step synthesis of imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) solvent in the vicinity of copper (II) acetate catalyst. Conclusions: In this research, a method for the synthesis of imidazo pyridines, which are nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds with various medicinal properties, has been presented. The present method without the need of molecular iodine and using copper acetate catalyst gives the corresponding products with good to excellent yields in a simple method and under safe conditions.