Ligand-Assisted Gold-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling with Aryldiazonium Salts: Redox Gold Catalysis without an External Oxidant

Gold-catalyzed C(sp)-C(sp(2)) and C(sp(2))-C(sp(2)) cross-coupling reactions are accomplished with aryldiazonium salts as the coupling partner. With the assistance of bpy ligand, gold(I) species were oxidized to gold(III) by diazonium without any external oxidants. Monitoring the reaction with NMR and ESI-MS provided strong evidence for the nitrogen extrusion followed by Au-III reductive elimination as the key step.