Mass Spectrometry of Organogold Compounds

The use of mass spectrometry (MS) based methods in organogold chemistry is reviewed. The focus is on both fundamental gas-phase ion chemistry studies in which the mass spectrometer is used as a “gas-phase reactor” and the analytical applications of mass spectrometry. For the former, the topics covered include: thermochemical measurements (bond energies from reactions of Au+ with substrates and Au+ and R3PAu+ affinities); photoelectron, IR and UV-Vis spectroscopy; ion-molecule reactions of bare Au+, ligated Au(L)n+, Au− and gold clusters with substrates; formation and reactions of organogold ions. The latter includes a discussion on: the use of different ionization methods (electron ionization, fast-atom bombardment, electrospray ionization and matrix assisted laser desorption ionization) in the analysis of gold compounds; the use of MS in the bioinorganic chemistry of gold; MS-based studies of relevance to catalysis. Keywords: bioinorganic chemistry; catalysis; electrospray ionization; gas-phase; ion-molecule reactions; mass spectrometry; organogold; spectroscopy; thermochemistry