Microwave-assisted Kabachnik-Fields Reaction in Ionic Liquid

In recent years one of the prime concerns of chemists is search for replacements of the conventional organic solvents with environmentally benign ones. In this context, room temperature ionic liquids are increasing interest as reaction media. In particular, utilization of the ionic liquids in matalcatalyzed reactions allowed easy recovery and reuse of the catalysts. 1 During our on going study on catalyst recycling using ionic liquids, 2 we interested in the combination of ionic liquids with microwave (MW)-assisted organic reactions. 3 Ionic liquids consisting entirely of ions could absorb the microwave energy efficiently. Moreover, the risk of an explosion caused by rapid increase of vapor pressure of the solvent can be avoided since ionic liquids have no measurable vapor pressure. In spite of several advantages, only few MW-assisted reactions have been carried out in ionic liquids media and no successful catalyst recycling has been achieved so far. 4 Here we wish to report our preliminary results on