Abstract A practical synthetic method for polysubstituted imidazoles via iodine-catalyzed aerobic oxidative cyclization of aryl ketones and benzylamines has been developed. It was found to tolerate a broad range of substrates to prepare polysubstituted imidazole derivatives in a one-pot manner, and thus importantly allowed product diversity for imidazole chemistry. Additionally, the resultant 1, 2, 4-trisubstituted imidazoles could be conveniently ...