Advances and Prospects in Gold-Catalyzed C-H Activation

The omnipresent character of C-H bonds in organic molecules gives a wide variety of opportunities for the synthesis of a number of functionalized molecules by the activation of the C-H bonds. One of those methods is gold-catalyzed C-H activation. Recent developments in the area of gold-catalyzed C-H activation involves annulation reactions leading to the formation of heterocyclic compounds, Au-catalyzed cross coupling reactions, and C-H functionalization reactions with high atom efficiency. In this short review we summarize the developments and studies carried out in gold-catalyzed C-H activation over the past decade.