Molecular assembly using gold catalysis

The development of catalytic methods leading to little or no waste is an area of crucial importance in terms of energy and materials economy. The present proposal presents strategies to assemble complex molecular architectures or value-added compounds using simply synthesized organogold complexes. The proposal adopts a two-prong approach. On the one side the design and synthesis of organogold catalysts are proposed and on the other some of the catalysts already synthesized by our group and the novel ones are proposed to enable important chemical transformations. These range from hydration reactions to tandem reactions leading to multiple bond formations in a single step. The aim of the proposal is to develop useful synthetic tools, readily usable by synthetic chemists permitting facile protocols enabling the synthesis of complex molecular assemblies.