The reluctance of gold to achieve oxidative addition reaction is considered as an intrinsic limitation for the development of gold-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions with simple and ubiquitous aryl halide electrophiles. Here, we report the rational construction of a Au(I)/Au(III) catalytic cycle involving a sequence of Csp²–X oxidative addition, Csp²–H auration and reductive elimination, allowing a gold-catalyzed direct arylation of arenes with aryl halides. Key to this discovery is the use of Me-Dalphos, a simple ancillary (P,N) ligand, that allows the bottleneck oxidative addition of aryl iodides and bromides to readily proceed under mild conditions. The hemilabile character of the amino group plays a crucial role in this transformation, as substantiated by density functional theory calculations.

This Article reports the first comprehensive study of β-hydride elimination at gold(III). The stability/fate of gold(III) alkyl species have been investigated experimentally and computationally. A series of well-defined cationic cyclometalated gold(III) alkyl complexes [(P,C)gold(III)(R)][NTf₂] [(P,C) = 8-diisopropylphosphino-naphthyl; R = Me, nPr, nBu] have been synthesized and spectroscopically characterized. While the cationic gold(III) methyl derivative 3c is stable for days at room temperature, the gold(III) n-propyl and n-butyl complexes 3a,b readily undergo β-hydride elimination at low temperature to generate propylene and 2-butenes, respectively. The formation of internal olefins from the gold(III) n-butyl complex 3b shows that olefin isomerization takes place after β-hydride elimination. Computational studies indicate that this isomerization proceeds through a chain-walking mechanism involving a highly reactive gold(III) hydride intermediate and a sequence of β-hydride elimination/reinsertion into the Au–H bond. The reaction of the cationic gold(III) methyl complex 3c with ethylene was also explored. According to ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy, a mixture of propylene, 1-butene, and 2-butenes is formed. DFT calculations provide detailed mechanistic insights and support the occurrence of migratory insertion of ethylene, β-hydride elimination, and olefin exchange at gold(III).