1-Methylimidazole: An Overview

1-Methylimidazole is a colorless to yellow liquid, with an amine-like odor. lt ismiscible with water. lt is a versatile intermediate used as a building block for active ingredients as well as in epoxy curing.

In the traditional medicine industry, imidazoles can be used as antiviral, anti-tumor drug can be used as agricultural bactericide, can be used as the composite material solidification agent, and the electronics processing and fabricating is with novel solderability preservative etc.

Uses

1-Methylimidazole is a derivative of imidazole that is utilized in the manufacture of such classes of items as pharmaceuticals, pesticides, ion-exchange resins, dye intermediates, textile auxiliaries, photographic chemicals, and corrosion inhibitors. 

It is also used as a catalyst for manufacturing polyurethanes and a curing agent for epoxy resins. 1-Methylimidazole has been utilized in the synthesis of inorganic complexes, ionic liquids, and catalytic deprotonation reagents.  The use of 1-methylimidazole in the preparation of GDP-hexanolamine for the purification of fucosyltransferases has been reported. 

Preparation

1-Methylimidazole is prepared mainly by two routes industrially. The main one is acid-catalysed methylation of imidazole by methanol. The second method involves the Radziszewski reaction from glyoxal, formaldehyde, and a mixture of ammonia and methylamine.