Structure and Properties
Imidazole is a planar 5-membered ring. It exists in two equivalent tautomeric forms, because the proton can be located on either of the two nitrogen atoms. Imidazole is a highly polar compound, as evidenced by a calculated dipole of 3.61D. It is highly soluble in water. The compound is classified as aromatic due to the presence of a sextet of π-electrons, consisting of a pair of electrons from the protonated nitrogen atom and one from each of the remaining four atoms of the ring. Some resonance structures of imidazole are shown below:
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