Gold-catalyzed Dearomatization Reactions

The advent of homogenous gold catalysis has revolutionized the way of approaching organic synthesis providing new and desirable solutions for challenging chemical manipulations of unactivated unsaturated hydrocarbons. In the realm of aromatic compounds, dearomatization protocols have been emerging as valuable synthetic tools to densely functionalized polycyclic 3D-molecular scaffolds, starting from readily available 2D-aromatic congeners. Gold catalysis contributed substantially in expanding this scenario enabling the condensation of numerous electron-rich arenes with hydrocarbons, resulting in the partial or total dearomatization of the aryl fragment. An overview of the most recent findings in the field, organized by type of electrophilic partners, is hereby presented.