Evidence for Direct Transmetalation of AuIII–F with Boronic Acids

The underlying reactivity of AuIII–F species with aryl boronic acids has been studied in detail taking advantage of four novel, stable difluoro-[(C^N)AuF2], arylmonofluoro-[(C^N)AuArF], and alkylmonofluoro-[(C^N)AuAlkF] gold(III) complexes, prepared and isolated in monomeric form. We provide the first experimental evidence for a direct AuIII–F/B transmetalation preceding the Csp2–Csp2 or Csp3–Csp2 bond formation.