Gold nanoparticles on wool in a comparative study with molecular gold catalysts

The catalytic activity of gold chloride nanoparticles is compared to the activity of two molecular gold(I) chloride phosphine complexes for the addition of methanol to 3-hexyne. The phosphines are triphenylphosphine and the bispidinone related bulky 6,8-bis-(4-dimethylamino-phenyl)-3-methyl-9-oxo-7-phenyl-3-aza-7-phospha-bicyclo[3.3.1]nonan-1,5-dicarboxylic acid dimethyl ester. Use of the bulky ligand made the addition reaction selective towards the enol product, meaning that no addition of methanol or water to alkenes, which were produced during the reaction, occurred. In contrast, use of triphenylphosphine gold(I) chloride resulted in the synthesis of a variety of products. The phosphines decomposed during reaction leading to the formation of gold nanoparticles, which were found to be catalytically inactive. Artificially produced gold nanoparticles also proved to be inactive. In contrast, gold chloride nanoparticles deposited on wool were active comparable to the gold phosphine-containing catalysts tested previously. Overall activities observed were low compared to results from the literature suggesting that the operating conditions chosen could be optimised.