Issue 29, 2024

Divergent catalytic behaviors of assembled organogold(i) clusters derived from enyne cyclization

Abstract

Homogeneous gold catalysis has attracted much recent attention due to diverse activation modes of gold(I) towards unsaturated organic groups. Because of attractive aurophilic interaction, structural transformations of metalated species into high nuclear clusters are often proposed in gold catalysis, while to date little is known about their assembly behaviors and catalytic activity. In this work, based on stoichiometric Au(I)-mediated enyne cyclization reactions, we achieve a discrete vicinal dicarbanion-centered Au4 intermediate and three assembled Au11, Au28, and Au14 clusters held together by several aryl dicarbanions. Spectral monitoring, kinetic and theoretical investigations confirm that these discrete and assembled intermediates display four different pathways upon catalyzing the cyclization reaction of the same 1,5-enyne substrate. The discrete Au4 cluster undergoes a full protodeauration process to generate active [Au(PPh3)]+ species for catalytic use. In contrast, the net-like Au11 cluster experiences a substrate-induced dissociation to generate a semi-stable Au10 unit and an active [alkyne-Au(PPh3)]+ fragment for further transformation. The dumbbell-like Au28 cluster is prone to cleavage of the central Au–Au linkage and each Au14 moiety exposes a coordination unsaturated site to activate a substrate molecule. However, the synthetic closed-Au14 cluster with full ligand protection is no longer catalytically active.

Graphical abstract: Divergent catalytic behaviors of assembled organogold(i) clusters derived from enyne cyclization

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
08 mar. 2024
Accepted
23 jun. 2024
First published
24 jun. 2024
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2024,15, 11311-11320

Divergent catalytic behaviors of assembled organogold(I) clusters derived from enyne cyclization

Q. Liu, X. Zhai, R. Jian and L. Zhao, Chem. Sci., 2024, 15, 11311 DOI: 10.1039/D4SC01618A

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