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ADVANCING GOLD CATALYSIS

Final Report Summary - CATGOLD (ADVANCING GOLD CATALYSIS)

Based on the mechanistic rational for the sluggish oxidative addition of Csp2–X bonds to simple gold(I) phosphine complexes we have developed less conventional gold(I) complexes as catalysts for cross-coupling reactions. Our work has also led to a clearer understanding of the role of silver(I) salts in the activation for gold(I) complexes, which has been applied for the design of new chiral binuclear gold catalysts including those with non-C2 symmetrical ligands in the context of the enantioselective intermolecular reactions of alkynes. We have reported the synthesis of the first well-characterized small clusters, which are catalytically active in C-C bond formation reactions. These clusters bear coordinatively unsaturated cationic Au(I) centers, which is unprecedented, and could be models for other larger, less structurally defined gold clusters. Another major focus of our work has been on the discovery of new cyclopropanations reactions and related transformations based on the generation of gold(I) carbenes by retro-Buchner reactions. The applications of these new gold(I)-catalyzed reaction have been demonstrated in the context of natural product synthesis as well as in for the preparation of theoretically interesting molecules.
We have developed novel concise approaches for the synthesis of disc-shaped highly symmetric nanographene fragments as well as for linear acenes of potential application in molecular electronics by combining gold(I)- and palladium(0)-catalyzed transformations.