Cost Efficient Synthesis of Diaryl Ethers Catalysed by CuI, Imidazolium Chloride and Cs2CO3.

Synthetically versatile imidazolium chlorides, especially 1,3‐bis‐(2,6‐diisopropylphenyl)‐imidazolium chloride (IPrHCl) along with copper (I) iodide and cesium carbonate, were found to be useful to form C−O bonds via coupling of phenols and aryl/heteroaryl bromides. In this catalysis, the metal:ligand (Cu:IPr) loading was optimised to 1.0 mol%, making it an inexpensive and a simple one pot catalytic route for synthesising a variety of diaryl ethers. The catalytic cycle was probed by UV‐Vis, FT‐IR and HRMS techniques confirming involvement of a copper‐imidazolium‐carbonate complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]