Microwave-assisted Homogeneous Gold Catalyzed Organic Transformations

Microwave chemistry is an emerging area of science mainly focusing on various applications of microwave energy into chemical processes. Microwave irradiation has enormous potential to provide controlled energy directly to the molecules of interest. On the other hand, homogeneous gold catalysis has emerged in the last two decades or so as one of the most promising fields in organic and organometallic chemistry. Its efficacy has been established many times for the construction of new C – X (X = O, N, S, etc.) and C – C bonds under mild reaction conditions. Although a significant number of reports have appeared in the literature regarding the homogeneous gold-catalyzed organic transformations under microwave conditions, this is the first review article which is going to appear in the literature. This mini-review is designed to give an interesting insight into various homogeneous goldcatalyzed organic reactions under microwave irradiation for the synthesis of a library of electronically and structurally diverse and biologically important organic molecules.