Substituent changes in the salen ligands of CuNa-complexes to induce various structures and catalytic activities towards 2-imidazolines from nitriles and 1,2-diaminopropane.

Based on various comparable salen ligands, three synthesized CuIINaI-complexes present efficient catalytic activities for the coupling and cyclization reaction of 1,2-diaminopropane with nitriles towards 2-imidazolines. The catalytic results show that salen ligands with an electron-donating substituent and small steric hindrance improve the catalytic activity.