In the present work, the catalytic performance of Au/C catalysts prepared by ultrasonic-assisted, microwave-assisted and incipient wetness impregnation techniques for the hydrochlorination of acetylene to vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) was studied. The catalyst prepared by the ultrasonic-assisted technique significantly exhibited enhanced acetylene conversion activity and selectivity to VCM over a period of 20 h of evaluation. The effect of gold loading on catalyst performance was determined, from which 1% Au was found to be the optimum loading compared to 0.5% and 2.0% loading. Importantly, the effect of different catalyst pretreatments (i.e. with and without H-2/HCI and HCI purging prior to the reaction testing) on the catalytic performance was also identified. The use of different pretreatment procedures affects only the initial activity of catalyst, while the long-term activities of catalyst with different pretreatments are almost identical. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.