An octanuclear gold(I) cube with amidinate ligands containing two hyper-coordinate ylide carbon atoms

Abstract

Disparate properties of gold(I) converge to produce the first known cube assembly of eight Au(I) atoms connected by four N-bridging amidinate ligands on the sides of the cube, capped above and below by hyper-coordinate carbon atoms from a phosphorous ylide. There are no phosphines coordinated to the Au(I) atoms. The cluster is formulated as [Au8{CH(NC8H 9)2}4{(η5-C)P(C 6H5)2(CH3)}2]. It displays a strong green luminescence under UV light. The novel product was generated in an attempt to produce luminescent species of gold(I) with mixed C- and N-coordination, an arrangement not abundant in the literature. The formation and structure of this cluster is reported. © 2009 Verlag der Zeitschrift für Naturforschung, Tübingen.