The journal European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry features on its front cover the recently published minireview “Fundamental Basis for Implementing Oxidant-Free Au(I)/Au(III) Catalysis”. Oxidant-free Au(I)/Au(III) catalysis can still be regarded as a young and promising chemistry. Because the first examples of gold catalysis were limited to the activation and functionalization of ?-C?C bonds and very little was known on fundamental organometallic transformations at gold, countless works during the past 15?years have been devoted to disclosing the elementary reactivity of gold and implementing it in catalysis. Remarkably, great emphasis on triggering oxidative addition at Au(I) has been placed, as the high redox potential of the Au(I)/Au(III) pair disfavors this reaction. In fact, different strategies such as strain release, ligand design and photochemistry have been proven successful at allowing the bottleneck oxidative addition to occur. These approaches have led to the rational development of oxidant-free Au(I)/Au(III) redox catalysis, particularly catalytic cycles in cross-coupling transformations where oxidative addition is usually the entry point to the cycle. Herein, the background story, the development process, and relevant examples of oxidant-free gold-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions are reviewed.
The cover is created by a wonderful Rocacorba picture by Pau Font.
The corresponding paper was recently published in European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry:
P. Font, and X. Ribas
“Fundamental Basis for Implementing Oxidant?Free Au(I)/Au(III) Catalysis”
Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2021, ASAP-
DOI: 10.1002/ejic.202100301
Cover: 10.1002/ejic.202100488
Girona, June 19, 2021
For more info: gestor.iqcc@gmail.com