Inorganic Chemistry, Vol.50, No.10, 4238-4240, 2011
Synthesis and Structure of a Dinuclear Gold(II) Complex with Terminal Fluoride Ligands
The potential for reductive elimination of fluorine from dinuclear gold(II) for catalysis has prompted our efforts to synthesize a dinuclear gold(II) fluoride complex. This has been achieved with bis(2,6-dimethylphenyl)formamidinate bridging ligands. In order to obtain this product, it was necessary first to synthesize the corresponding dinuclear gold(II) nitrate, which reacts readily with KF in a metathesis reaction. The nitrate complex and fluoride complexes have been structurally characterized. The Au-Au distance in the dinuclear fluoride, 2.595 angstrom, is longer than the distance found in the analogous chloride complex, 2.567 angstrom. This result is consistent with the presence of a fluoride "pi electron effect" on the filled Au 5d orbitals. The Raman spectrum shows an Au-Au stretch at 206 cm(-1), which agrees with Woodruff's rules and the density functional theory computational model used for modeling the complex.