Aurocarbons: Binary Gold Carbides, Binary Carbon Aurides and their Derivatives

Abstract

This chapter discusses diverse aurocarbons, organometallic species which in their simplest form, the first class, are composed of only carbon and gold: they may be understood as binary gold carbides, binary carbon aurides, and as hydrocarbons in which the hydrogens have been replaced by gold. Such species include the highly explosive solid C2Au2 and gas phase exohedral gold-fullerene complexes (C60)2Au+. The second class of aurocarbons are species of the first class in which ligands have been affixed to the gold atoms. This includes the stable C2Au2(P(C6H5)3)2 and the octahedral [C(AuL)6]2+ (L = phenyl(bis(p-tolyl)) phosphine, the latter isolable as the crystalline (BF4)− salt. The third class allows for the presence of “a few” hydrogens or other univalent groups and so includes salts of the anion [HCCCCAuCCCCAuCCCCH]2− and solutions of the cation [C6H5CC(AuP(C6H5)3)2]+. It is to be emphasized that there must be direct gold–carbon bonding and so the heterometallic cluster Rh10C2(CO)2[AuP(C6H5)3)4] is not an aurocarbon of any class even though it contains an allmetal polyhedron, ligated gold atoms, endohedral carbon atoms and a plethora of ligands. Keywords: aurocarbons; binary carbon aurides; binary gold carbides; cations and anions; classes of organometallic species; fullerenes; hydrocarbons; organogold complexes; phosphines ligand