Mechanistic investigation of the gold-catalyzed aerobic oxidation of aldehydes: added insight from Hammett studies and isotopic labelling experiments

The gold-catalyzed aerobic oxidation of aldehydes proceeds through development of a partial negative charge and has a significant kinetic isotope effect (k(H)/k(D) = 2.8-2.9), which illustrates that activation of the C-H bond takes place in the rate-determining step.