Development of new molecular transformations via gold carbene as a key intermediate

Simple and efficient methods of generation for gold alkylidene complexes or other transition metal alkylidene complexes have been developed, and applied them to new molecular transformations. Interestingly, depending on the reaction conditions, formation ofα-silyl orα-boryl-σ-allylpalladium acetate complexes generated from 3-trimethylsilyl or 3-pinacolatoboryl-1-allylacetate and palladium complex was found to produce palladacyclobutene intermediate and palladium carbenoid intermediate, respectively. While the palladacyclobutene intermediate reacts with strained olefins to give cyclopropanation products, the palladium carbenoid intermediate undergoes dimerization.