Imidazolium and Potassium Hydrogen Carbonate Salts as Ecofriendly Organocatalysts for Oxazolidinone Synthesis

Although oxazolidinones are valuable intermediate compounds for industrial applications, no synthetic method is suitable for their production on a large scale owing to the use of reagents/catalysts that are hazardous or toxic to human health or ecotoxic for the environment. In this manuscript, we describe new and efficient catalysts, that is, the nontoxic hydrogen carbonate anion in combination with a potassium or diisobutylimidazolium ([ i Bu 2 IM]) countercation, for the conversion of β‐amino alcohols into cyclic oxazolidinones in high yields of 69 to 90 %. Depending on the catalytic conditions, both catalysts could be easily recovered from the crude reaction products and reused several times without a decrease in their catalytic performance. Furthermore, the imidazolium cation is a renewable catalyst, because its preparation requires less than 10 % of carbon fossil sources.