Atomically dispersed gold anchored on carbon nitride nanosheets as effective catalyst for regioselective hydrosilylation of alkynes

The hydrosilylation of alkynes is a powerful process for producing vinylsilane compounds, which are synthetically versatile organosilicon reagents in organic chemistry. Herein, atomically dispersed Au anchored on g-C3N4 nanosheets is developed as a superior catalyst for the alkyne hydrosilylation reaction. The atomic Au species are in the +1 oxidative state coordinating with three nitrogen atoms observed via X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) characterization and analysis. Aromatic alkynes and aliphatic alkynes with various functional groups can effectively produce corresponding β-(E)-vinylsilane products with high conversion and selectivity. The atomically dispersed Au catalyst could be reused at least for five cycles without obvious decline in activity and selectivity. The unique structural and electronic characteristic of AuI–N3 sites are conducive to the successive activation of Si–H bonds, which boost the superior activity and selectivity of the single atom site Au in alkyne hydrosilylation.