A Chlorinating Reagent Yields Vinyl Chlorides with High Regioselectivity under Heterogeneous Gold Catalysis.

A novel chlorinating reagent with a high concentration of HCl has enabled the highly regioselective hydrochlorination of unactivated alkynes using a commercial nanogold catalyst. No overchlorination or hydration products were formed, and various functional groups were tolerated. This hydrochlorination method could be conducted under open air.