Recent Progress in N-Heterocyclic Carbene Gold-Catalyzed Reactions of Alkynes Involving Oxidation/Amination/Cycloaddition

Recent rapid development in homogeneous gold catalysis affords an alternative and particularly thriving strategy for the generation of gold carbenes through gold-catalyzed oxidation/amination/cycloaddition of alkynes, while it avoids the employment of hazardous and potentially explosive diazo compounds as starting materials for carbene generation. In addition to facile and secure operation, gold carbenes generated in this strategy display good chemoselectivity distinct from other metal carbenes produced from the related diazo approach. N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) gold is a special metal complex that can be used as ancillary ligands, which provides enhanced stability and can also act as an efficient chiral directing group. In this review, we will present an overview of these recent advances in alkyne oxidation/amination/cycloaddition by highlighting their specificity and applicability, aiming to facilitate progress in this very exciting area of research.