UC Berkeley

In the span of three decades, asymmetric gold(I) catalysis has transformed from an esoteric curiosity to a powerful synthetic tool. The advancements in gold(I)-catalyzed enantioselective transformations have been critically enabled by a diversity of chiral phosphorus-based ligands, including axially chiral diphosphines and phosphoramidites, among others. The development of chiral carbenes has recently began to augment the library of ligands for gold(I) catalysis. This dissertation will focus on the design and synthesis of chiral acyclic diamino-carbene (ADC) gold(I) complexes, as well as their role in the optimization of a number of synthetic organic transformations.