SYNTHESES, CHARACTERIZATIONS, LUMINESCENCE PROPERTIES, AND ELECTRONIC-STRUCTURES OF GOLD(I) BIS(PHOSPHINE)-XANTHATE COMPLEXES

Syntheses, structures and photophysical properties of some bis(phosphi ne) xanthate complexes, L2AuS2COR, L = Ph3P, CEP(tris(cyanoethyl)phosp hine) are described. Extended Huckel and Fenske-Hall molecular orbital (MO) calculations indicate that bending activates the gold(I) center for interaction with nucleophiles. Experimentally, it is observed that the compound with the smaller P-Au-P angle (Ph3P) also shows the shor test Au-S distance. In fact, the (CEP)2AuS2COEt complex has two nearly identical Au-S distances at 2.745(2) and 2.934(2) angstrom, which are 0.2 angstrom longer than the short Au-S distance, 2.530(2) angstrom, in the (Ph3P)2AuS2COEt complex. The absorption spectra of the complexe s show a moderately intense band around 306 nm (epsilon = (1.5-3.0) x 10(4) M-1 cm-1) and a weak band al ca. 390 nm (epsilon = 100 M-1 cm-1) . The perturbation of the KS2COR ''free'' ligand anion absorption band s in CH3CN shifts the high-energy band slightly to the blue while the low-energy band significantly blue shifts. Spectral changes observed b y the systematic variation of the R groups on the xanthate and by solv ent variation studies suggest that the high energy band is a pi-pi tr ansition localized on the xanthate ligand. Each complex luminesces as a solid and in solution. Lifetimes for the solids are nanosecond in du ration. Excitation spectra resemble absorption spectra. It is believed that the luminescence in these mononuclear gold(I) complexes originat es from ligand excitation centered in the n-pi transition. Complex 2, (CEP)2AuS2COEt, crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P2(1)/c (N o. 14), with a = 11.538(2) angstrom, b = 20.302(4) angstrom, c = 11.56 5(1) angstrom, beta = 116.62(1)degrees, Z = 4, and R = 0.0325. Compoun d 4, (Ph3P)2AuS2COEt, crystallizes in the triclinic space group P1BAR (No. 2), with a = 10.316(3) angstrom, b = 13,058(2) angstrom c = 14.03 9(4) angstrom, alpha = 88.070, beta = 74.40-degrees, gamma = 76.59(1)d egrees, Z = 2, and R = 0.0273.