SYNTHESIS OF HETEROCYCLES IN NON-CONVENTIONAL MEDIA: THE CASE OF IONIC LIQUIDS

The synthesis of heterocycles is a prominent feature of organic chemistry, due to the enormous importance of such compounds in fields like medicinal or industrial chemistry. In the effort of improving their synthesis, the nature of the solvent plays a pivotal role. In this context, the use on non-conventional solvent like ionic liquids can determine significant improvements reaction outcomes, sustainability of the process, and possibility to be coupled with non-conventional synthetic methodologies, like ultrasounds or microwave irradiation. In this chapter, we present a bird’s-eye view on recent examples of the application of ionic liquids as solvents or catalysts, evidencing, whenever possible, the differences with reactions in conventional organic solvents