Mechanistic Investigation of Au(III)-Catalyzed Cycloisomerizations of N -Propargylcarboxamides

Synthesis and catalytic activity of heterobimetallic Au/M (M = RhIII, IrIII) complexes with ditopic mono- and triphosphane ligands

A series of heterobimetallic complexes Au/M (M = RhIII, IrIII) were prepared on the basis of two ditopic ligands: a monophosphane ligand L1H and a triphosphane ligand L2H. The complexes were fully characterised, including single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies. Catalytic activity of cationic L1/AuI/IrIII and L2/AuI/IrIII bis(trifluoromethane)sulfonimide was analysed through their capacity to induce allenyl ether rearrangement and cycloisomerisation of N-propargyl benzamide. While cationic L1/AuI/IrIII showed some ability to induce allenyl ether rearrangement, no conversion was observed for cationic L2/AuI/IrIII. Similarly, N-propargyl benzamide could undergo cycloisomerisation in the presence of cationic L1/AuI/IrIII, whereas cationic L2/AuI/IrIII was again inactive. These findings highlight how crucial the surroundings of the metal centre are to the catalytic activity. Catalytic activity is only possible when Au has a free coordination site; the gold complex becomes inactive when the tridentate ligand is present.

Gem-Diaurated Gold(III) Complexes: Synthesis, Structure, Aurophilic Interaction, and Catalytic Activity

We present a protocol to synthesize air stable gem-diaurated gold(III) compounds from 1,3-diketones in a single cycloauration step with tetrachloroauric acid. So far related species were only accessible from phosphonium bis(ylide) ligands which hold the two gold atoms in close proximity. Lacking such a constraint, our compounds show the longest Au-Au distances of all gem-diaurated carbons, ranging from 3.26 to 3.32 Å. Modeling based on results of CCSD(T) calculations shows no stabilization by aurophilic interactions for our gold(III) systems, compared to 9.1 kcal/mol for gold(I) gem-diauration. This demonstrates no aurophilic interactions are needed for the isolation of air stable gem-diaurated gold(III) complexes. We show the new gem-diaurated gold(III) compounds are active in the gold-catalyzed phenol synthesis and highly active in the cycloisomerization of an N-propargylcarboxamide; here, we obtained the so far highest known TON of over 2500 per gold atom with respect to the oxazole formation.