Room-temperature gold-catalysed arylation of heteroarenes: complementarity to palladium catalysis

Tailoring of the pre-catalyst, the oxidant and the arylsilane enables the first room temperature, gold-catalysed, innate C-H arylation of heteroarenes. Regioselectivity is consistently high and, in some cases, distinct from that reported with palladium catalysis. Tolerance to halides and boronic esters, in both the heteroarene and silane partners, provides orthogonality to Suzuki-Miyaura coupling.