The traditional form of carbon nitride materials poses
limitations,
particularly in catalysis, due to a limited number of active sites
and low surface area. In response to these challenges, two porous
carbon nitride tubes (CNTs) with diverse properties were designed
and fabricated by introducing different poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs)
as templates. Imidazolium-based PILs were synthesized with different
ion pairs, including halogen (Br) and chiral amino acid (l-phenylalanine). The results indicate that the morphology and properties
of CNTs are influenced by the nature of PIL ion pairs. Synthesized
CNT, assisted by PIL-Br (designated as CNT1), demonstrated superior
characteristics in terms of thermal stability (up to 640 °C),
specific surface area (73.5 m2/g), and recoverability (six
runs without a significant decrease in reaction yield), which are
the key factors of a high-performance catalyst. In the following,
CNT architectures were employed as heterogeneous catalysts, and their
catalytic efficiencies were compared in the regiospecific synthesis
of benzimidazole ring systems. As expected, CNT1 demonstrates superfast
synthesis (8–12 min) of various pharmaceutical benzimidazole
scaffolds with excellent yields (up to 95%) under ultrasound irradiation.
In a groundbreaking achievement, this is the first report that presents
the preparation of a superactive catalyst through the integration
of two distinct categories of advanced materials, including ionic
polymers and graphite carbon nitrides, for regiospecific multicomponent
reactions. This study offers a fresh perspective on enhancing the
catalytic activity of graphitic carbon nitride by changing ion pairs
of PILs for advanced technological applications.