Gold carbene chemistry from diazo compounds

Diazo compounds are generally used as carbene precursors. Traditionally, dirhodium, copper and iron catalysts were used to decompose diazo compounds to form the key metal carbene intermediates. Recently, the gold catalysts have been developed as a unique type of metal catalyst to decompose diazo compounds. The derived gold carbene showed much different characters comparing with other transition metal carbenes. They could go through a series of cycloaddition, insertion and coupling reactions. Here, the recent progress of the gold carbene chemistry from diazo compounds was reviewed, including the scope of reactions, mechanism and synthetic applications.