A convenient and new copper nanoparticles‐catalyzed cross‐coupling reaction of imidazo[1,2‐a]pyridines with methyl ketones has been developed to synthesize 1,2‐diketones that have an imidazo[1,2‐a]pyridine core. Highly active magnetic copper nanoparticles [i.e., Cu4O3@Fe3O4_C(II)] were prepared and characterized by standard materials characterization techniques, which included transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X‐ray diffraction. These methods were also used to acquire information about the size, oxidation state, and crystallinity of the nanoparticle catalyst. With this method, a variety of pharmaceutically important 1,2‐dicarbonyl imidazo[1,2‐a]pyridines were readily synthesized in moderate to good yields. The catalyst was easily separated from the reaction mixture by using an external magnetic field and could be recycled 6 times with only a negligible change in the catalytic performance.
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