Efficient Room‐Temperature Synthesis of Tri‐ and Tetrasubstituted Imidazoles Catalyzed by ZrCl4

A general protocol has been developed for the rapid synthesis of 2,4,5‐trisubstituted and 1,2,4,5‐tetrasubstituted imidazoles in high yields using ZrCl4 as an efficient catalyst at room temperature. A variety of aromatic, aliphatic, and terpenoidal aldehydes underwent condensation with NH4OAc/amines to give the imidazoles. Similarly, the imidazole glycoconjugates are prepared in good yields from the corresponding glycosyl aldehydes.