Recent Study on Copper-Promoted One-Pot Approach: Synthesis of Benzimidazoles

A facile, one-pot, and proficient method was developed for the production of various 2-arylaminobenzimidazoles. This methodology is based for the first time on a copper catalyst promoted domino C–N cross-coupling reaction for the generation of 2-arylaminobenzimidazoles. Mechanistic investigations revealed that the synthetic pathway involves a copper-based desulphurization/ nucleophilic substitution and a subsequent domino intra and intermolecular C–N cross-coupling reactions. Some of the issues typically encountered during the synthesis of 2-arylaminobezimidazoles, including the use of expensive catalytic systems and the low reactivity of bromo precursors, were addressed using this newly developed copper-catalyzed method. The reaction procedure is simple, generally with excellent substrate tolerance, and provides good to high yields of the desired products. However, the simplicity, environmental acceptability, and cost effectiveness of copper makes this method more practical.