Recent Developments in Arylgold(I) Chemistry

Abstract

This chapter focuses on recent developments in monovalent arylgold derivatives. While traditionally mononuclear complexes are the most plentiful arylgold(I) derivatives, the growing interest in the study and understanding of closed-shell metal–metal interactions have led to the synthesis of numerous examples of homo- or hetero-atomic associations in which the presence of intra- or inter-molecular metal–metal interactions may play an important role and lead to interesting optical properties. This chapter presents the different synthetic routes to arylgold(I) derivatives and discusses their crystal structures in an increasing order of nuclearity from mononuclear species to polynuclear complexes and according to the neutral or ionic nature of the arylgold species. The discussion of the mononuclear complexes includes: neutral, anionic and cationic; while that of dinuclear complexes includes: homonuclear complexes and heteronuclear complexes; of trinuclear complexes includes: homonuclear complexes and heteronuclear complexes; of tetranuclear complexes includes: homonuclear and heteronuclear; and that of higher nuclearity complexes includes: penta-, hexa- and heptanuclear complexes and polynuclear complexes of arylgold(I) chemistry.