A non-ionic surfactant based catalyst tablet: a reusable gold-NHC catalyst system for alkyne hydration reactions

Herein, we report the encapsulation of IPrAuCl (Au-1) in Synperonic (R) F108 (Syn), a triblock non-ionic polymeric surfactant, acting as both a catalyst tablet medium and surfactant for dispersion of hydrophobic alkyne substrates and gold-NHC complexes in aqueous media. The catalyst tablets (Au-1@Syn) formed stable nano-sized micelle structures in a water/methanol mixture and can be easily recycled as aqueous micelles and can be reused up to 7 times without any significant activity loss in the alkyne hydration reaction.