Mechanistic details for oxidative addition of PhICl 2 to gold(I) complexes.

This study demonstrates that the oxidative addition of hypervalent iodine PhICl to Au(I) complexes LAuAr follows an unprecedented stepwise mechanism. The energy of the Au(I) d orbital determines the ease of the oxidative addition reaction; the fewer electron-withdrawing substituents present on the Ar ligand, the higher the energy of the d orbital and the easier the oxidative addition.