Selective C-C bonds formation, N-alkylation and benzo[d]imidazoles synthesis by a recyclable zinc composite

Earth abundant metals are much less expensive, promising, valuable metals and could be served as catalysts for the borrowing hydrogen reaction, dehydrogenation and heterocycles synthesis, instead of noble metals. The uniformly dispersed zinc composites were designed, synthesized and carefully characterized by means of XPS, EDS, TEM and XRD. The resulting zinc composite showed good catalytic activity for the N-alkylation of amines with amines, ketones with alcohols in water under base-free conditions, while unsaturated carbonyl compounds could also be synthesized by tuning the reaction conditions. Importantly, it was the first time to realize the synthesis of 2-aryl-1H-benzo[d]imidazole derivatives by using this zinc composite under green conditions. Meanwhile, this zinc catalyst could be easily recovered and reused for at least five times.