The well-established oxidative addition -reductive elimination pathway is the most followed one in transition metal catalyzed cross coupling reactions. While readily occurring with a series of transition metals, it does not take place with gold(I) complexes which have shown some reluctance to undergo oxidative addition unless special sets of ligands on gold(I), reagents or reaction conditions are used. A new possibility to overcome this hurdle has been devised. Upon visible light irradiation, an iridium photocatalyst triggers via triplet sensitization the oxidative addition of an alkynyliodide onto a vinylgold(I) intermediate to deliver Csp 2 -Csp coupling products after reductive elimination. Mechanistic and modeling studies support that an energy transfer takes place and not a redox pathway. This novel mode of activation in gold homogenous catalysis was applied in several dual catalytic processes. Alkynylbenzofuran derivatives were obtained from o-alkynylphenols and iodoalkynes in the presence of catalytic gold(I) and iridium(III) complexes under blue LED irradiation.Over the last two decades, homogeneous gold catalysis has been extensively used to efficiently and selectively promote a variety of cyclization processes. [1][2][3] The typical casting involves bifunctional substrates bearing an unsaturation prompt to electrophilic activation and a judiciously positioned internal nucleophile. A protodemetalation of the organogold intermediates to afford hydrofunctionalized products generally terminates the catalytic cycles. 4 Pursuing the step economy principle and also aiming at higher level of molecular complexity, some in situ post-functionalization reactions of the organogold 5 intermediate have been devised such as electrophilic halogenation or cross-coupling reactions. Although palladium catalyzed cross coupling from an organogold(I) intermediate has been

A new method for the arylative cyclization of o-alkynylphenols with aryldiazonium salts via dual photoredox/gold catalysis is described. The reaction proceeds smoothly at room temperature in the absence of base and/or additives and offers an efficient approach to benzofuran derivatives. The scope of the transformation is wide, and the limitations are discussed. The reaction is proposed to proceed through a photoredox-promoted generation of a vinylgold(III) intermediate that undergoes reductive elimination to provide the heterocyclic coupling adduct.