Water → 1-Methyl-5-phenyl-1H-imidazole

Participants

Reaction Steps

To 2.88 g of 1-acetyl-4-phenylimidazole in 50 ml of acetonitrile was added 5.8 ml of methyl iodide and the reaction mixture sealed in a flask over a weekend. The reaction mixture was poured into water and then decanted from insoluble oil. The pH of the decanted solution was adjusted to 9 with sodium carbonate and the solution extracted with chloroform. The extracts were combined, dried over magnesium sulfate and concentrated to give 1.02 g of crude product which was chromatographed on 50 g of silica gel using 30% ethyl acetate in chloroform as the eluent, 640 mg.

Provenance & Evidence