A suspension of 10 mmol of 2-methyl-1H-imidazole was formed with 10 mmol of potassium carbonate in 10 mL of acetonitrile and stirred at room temperature for 15 minutes. Subsequently, 10 mmol of benzyl chloride was added to the reaction system and the reaction mixture was heated to 70 °C and stirred continuously for 72 hours. Upon completion of the reaction, the solvent was removed by rotary evaporation and the residue was dissolved in 20 mL of ethyl acetate and washed with deionized water (2 x 10 mL). The organic phase was concentrated under reduced pressure and purified by silica gel column chromatography (eluent: chloroform) to afford the target compound 1-benzyl-2-methylimidazole in 38% yield. The product was a yellow oil; UV-Vis (chloroform, λmax/nm): 290; IR (KBr, ν/cm-1): 2939, 1712, 1508, 1434, 1365, 1272, 1118, 983, 721; 1H NMR (250.13 MHz, CDCl3) δ: 7.43-7.32 (m, 5H). 7.17-7.14 (m, 2H), 6.99 (d, J=1.3 Hz, 1H), 6.84 (d, J=1.2 Hz, 1H), 5.11 (s, 2H), 2.27 (s, 3H); 13C NMR (62.9 MHz, CDCl3) δ: 144.3, 138.0, 129.3, 128.1, 127.5, 127.1, 120.9, 49.2, 13.4.
