Exceptionally Fast Carbon-Carbon Bond Reductive Elimination from Gold(III)

Reductive elimination of carbon-carbon (C-C) bonds occurs in numerous metal-catalyzed reactions. This process is well documented for a variety of transition metal complexes. However, C-C bond reductive elimination from a limited number of Au(III) complexes has been shown to be a slow and prohibitive process, generally requiring elevated temperature. Herein, we show that oxidation of a series of mono- and bimetallic Au(I) aryl complexes at low temperature generates observable Au(III) and Au(II) intermediates. We also show that aryl-aryl bond reductive elimination from these oxidized species is not only among the fastest observed for any transition metal, but is also mechanistically distinct from previously studied alkyl-alkyl and aryl-alkyl reductive eliminations from Au(III).