Heterogeneous Gold-Catalyzed Selective Semireduction of Alkynes using Formic Acid as Hydrogen Source

A convenient and robust protocol for the selective transfer semireduction of alkynes was developed, using bio-renewable formic acid as the hydrogen source and easily handled supported gold nanoparticles as the catalyst. The catalytic system showed several attractive features such as high activity and selectivity, recyclability, scalability and adaptability to continuous operation under mild reaction conditions, thus providing a practical alternative to current methods for alkyne semireduction.