Experimental and Theoretical Study of Gold(III)-Catalyzed Hydration of Alkynes

The properties of different Au(III) halo dithiocarbamate complexes of structure [AuX 2 (S 2 CN(R) 2 )] as suitable catalysts for the hydration reaction of phenylacetylene have been tested. Moderate catalytic activity was found for X = Cl, Br, while those compounds in which X = I, C 6 F 5 are inert. A working mechanism involving the initial dissociation of a labile ligand (Cl or Br) followed by coordination and activation of the alkyne, solvent-assisted attack of water, and enol tautomerization has been proposed through computational studies.