Use of Gold Nanoparticles in the Synthesis of Heterocyclic Compounds

Nanoparticles have been proven to be efficient catalysts for a variety of chemical reactions, with added advantages such as the reuse of catalysts, increasing the scale of reactions employing continuous flow techniques, and simple separation of the reaction milieu, making them green, efficient, and lucrative choices. Over the last decade, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have appeared as promising and efficient catalysts in the field of sustainable organic synthesis. On the other hand, heterocycles are significant scaffolds in a variety of natural products and other biologically active molecules, as well as useful compounds for organic and material chemistry. Therefore, the progress of proficient techniques for the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds is always of major significance. This mini-review focuses on some of the most important AuNPs catalyzed heterocyclic compound synthesis processes. Wherever essential, the exclusivity of the approaches has been discussed by emphasizing substrate diversity, selectivity, product yields, and mechanistic features.