Natural dolomitic limestone catalyzed synthesis of benzimidazoles, dihydropyrimidinones and highly substituted pyridines under ultrasound irradiation
In this paper, for the first time, naturally occurring dolomitic limestone is employed as a heterogeneous green catalyst for the synthesis of medicinally valuable N-heterocycles, 2-aryl-1-arylmethyl-1H-benzo[d]imidazoles, dihydropyrimidinones/ thiones and 2-amino-4-aryl-3,5-dicarbonitrile-6-sulfanyl-pyridines in good to excellent isolated yields via a rapid construction of C-N, C-C and C-S bond formations in 1:1 ratio of ethanol:H2O under ultrasound irradiation. Dolomitic limestone is characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), FT-IR, Raman and SEM with EDAX analyses. Further, the catalyst is environmentally benevolent, non-toxic, most abundant, easy to handle low catalyst loading and is reused 7 times without significant loss of catalytic activity. Hence, the catalyst is greener alternative for the synthesis of aforementioned N-heterocycles as compared with the existing reported catalysts.