Unusual selectivity in gold-catalyzed intermolecular Heck reactions

The Heck reaction has been considered a robust method for the cross-coupling reaction of olefins and aryl halides to yield alkenes. However, the most significant requirement is the necessity of electronically biased olefins and the requirement of directing group to control the regioselectivity of the Heck reaction. The research group of Patil and Gandon recently documented the gold-catalyzed Heck reaction, demonstrating the utilization of simple aliphatic alkenes as substrates. This approach does not need electronically biased olefins and offers a distinct regioselectivity when compared to the Heck reaction catalyzed by other transition metal catalysts.