Elementary gold catalysis

The success of homogeneous gold catalysis [1] was accompanied by intensive efforts to understand the mechanisms of the new conversions [2]. None of the many new gold-catalyzed reactions proceeds through only one transition state, we always deal with multistep mechanisms. Many of the reactions have the first steps in common, and then diverge at a later stage of the sequence of elementary steps of the catalytic cycles, which ultimately leads to the manifold of different products that can be obtained. 

---