Highly efficient magnetically separable Zn-Ag@L-arginine Fe3O4 catalyst for synthesis of 2-aryl-substituted benzimidazoles and multicomponent synthesis of pyrimidines

A general and efficient one pot protocol has been developed for the synthesis of benzimidazoles and pyrimidines using Zn and Ag@L-arginine Fe3O4 as a heterogeneous catalyst. The prepared catalyst provided good yields of the corresponding products within a short reaction time. Catalyst was characterized by using XRD, TEM, FEG-SEM, EDS, XPS, Raman, CHNS and FT-IR. The present method provided high yields of the products with wide sub-strates scope. The catalyst could be reused five cycles without a significant loss of catalytic activity.