Highly active gold-based catalyst for the reaction of benzaldehyde with ethyl diazoacetate.

The gold complex [IPrAu(NCMe)]BF(4) catalyzes the reaction of ethyl diazoacetate with benzaldehyde to give mixtures of ethyl 3-oxo-3-phenylpropanoate and ethyl 3-hydroxy-2-phenylacrylate in the first example of a group 11 metal-based catalyst for this transformation; the catalyst activity is improved by a factor of 2500 compared to those of previously reported iron-based catalysts.