Gold(I) Catalysis at Extreme Concentrations Inside Self‐Assembled Nanospheres

Abstract

Abstract Homogeneous transition‐metal catalysis is a crucial technology for the sustainable preparation of valuable chemicals. The catalyst concentration is usually kept as low as possible, typically at m M or μ M levels, and the effect of high catalyst concentration is hardly exploited because of solubility issues and the inherent unfavorable catalyst/substrate ratio. Herein, a self‐assembly strategy is reported which leads to local catalyst concentrations ranging from 0.05 M to 1.1 M , inside well‐defined nanospheres, whilst the overall catalyst concentration in solution remains at the conventional m M levels. We disclose that only at this high concentration, the gold(I) chloride is reactive and shows high selectivity in intramolecular CO and CC bond‐forming cyclization reactions.