Carbonylation reactions, such as Heck, Sonogashira, and radical carbonylations, were successfully carried out in a "two-chamber reactor" where carbon monoxide was produced ex situ by the Morgan reaction (dehydration of formic acid by sulfuric acid). By a subsequent application in a microflow system using a "tube-in-tube" reactor where gas-permeable Teflon AF2400 was used as the inner tube, it is demonstrated that formic acid/sulfuric acid can be employed concomitantly with an amine base such as triethylamine in the Heck aminocarbonylation of aryl iodide.

A highly efficient gold-catalyzed cyclization reaction of various functionalized acetylenic acids is described. The cyclizations are conducted in the presence of Au(I) catalyst in acetonitrile at room temperature in a short reaction time. The reaction conditions are compatible with several functional groups, such as ester, alkene, alkyne, chloro, and free or protected alcohol, and lead to original gamma-lactones in good to excellent yields.

A novel [5+1] type carbonylative cycloaddition reaction has been developed using a Rh complex as catalyst. This reaction can convert readily available 3-acyloxy-1,4-enynes and CO to a wide range of functionalized resorcinols in good yields. A mechanism involving Rh-catalyzed cyclocarbonylation of 3-acyloxy-1,4-enynes accompanied by a 1,2-acyloxy shift is proposed for the present [5+1] type cycloaddition reaction.