Gold-Catalyzed Deallylative C–S Cross-Coupling Reactions

Herein, we report the gold-catalyzed deallylative C-S cross-coupling reaction through ligand-enabled Au(I)/Au(III) redox catalysis. One of the major challenges in gold-catalyzed C-S cross-coupling reactions is to prevent catalyst deactivation caused by the formation of a strong gold-sulfur bond. We discovered that the use of allyl phenyl sulfide as a sulfur surrogate facilitates a dynamic equilibrium between cationic Au(I) and Au(I)-sulfide complexes, overcoming the gold quenching problem. A detailed mechanistic investigation, including 31P NMR studies, mass analysis, and stoichiometric experiments, provided valuable insights into the reaction mechanism, which is further supported by computational studies.