Gold Catalysis: A New Contender for Cross-Coupling Reactions with Aryl Halides

Cross-coupling reactions of aryl halides catalyzed by transition metals such as Pd, Ni, Cu etc have shown to be effective tools for the generation of carbon–carbon and carbon–heteroatom bonds. However, because of the difficulties associated with the oxidative addition of organohalides or pseudohalides on gold complexes, such cross- coupling reactions are non-trivial in gold catalysis. Recent research revealed that gold- catalyzed cross-coupling reactions of aryl iodides are possible and the current article shall briefly discuss the state-of-the-art in the field.