Gold-catalyzed cascade reactions for synthesis of carbo- and heterocycles: selectivity and diversity.

This account describes our recent efforts devoted to gold chemistry since 2009. Based on furyl-Au 1,3-dipole analogues and related gold carbene intermediates, a rich variety of gold-catalyzed cascade reactions have been developed, which provide facile access to a diverse range of novel carbo- and heterocycles. In these reactions, the selectivity can be well controlled by the catalyst (ligand and metal), substrate or reagent. In addition, we have also developed the corresponding enantioselective variants, which are guided by bis(phosphinegold) complexes derived from axially chiral scaffolds and asymmetric gold/chiral Brønsted acid relay catalysis.