Syntheses of tetrahydroquinoline-based chiral carbene precursors and the related chiral NHC-Au(i) complex.

Four tetrahydroquinoline-based chiral carbene precursors were synthesized using unsymmetrical N , N '-diarylformamidines and chiral 2-allyloxiranes as starting materials. A representative NHC-gold complex has been prepared and fully characterized, the crystal structure of which reveals an intramolecular Au⋯H-C(sp 3 ) interaction between Au(i) and the hydrogen atom of the isopropyl moiety in the N -aryl group.