Role of Gold Catalyst in Etherification Reactions

초록

It was discovered that the gold(Ⅲ)-catalyst can be an effective reagent for the synthesis of unsymmetrical ethers from alcohols.[1] The mechanisms of etherification between different alcohols catalyzed by AuCl3 were studied by the HF and B3LYP methods using Gaussian package. The results show that the gold catalyst acts as a Lewis acid. The detailed mechanism and selectivity of the reaction toward unsymmetrical ether are studied in this work.