Enhancement of reaction efficiency by functionalized alcohols on gold(I)-catalyzed intermolecular hydroalkoxylation of unactivated olefins.

Intermolecular hydroalkoxylation of unactivated olefins catalyzed by the combination of gold(I) and electron deficient phosphine ligands has been developed. Although pairings of unactivated olefins and common aliphatic alcohols gave unsatisfactory results in gold catalyzed hydroalkoxylations, the use of alcohol substrates bearing coordination functionalities such as halogen or alkoxy groups showed great improvement of reactivity.