Intramolecular d10–d10 interactions in neutral, dinuclear Au(I) complexes supported by amino-thiazoline- and -thiazole-based P,N-phosphine ligands

The ligands N-(diphenylphosphino)-thiazoline-2-amine (1), N-(diphenylphosphino)thiazol-2-amine (2) and N-(diphenylphosphino)-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-amine 3, readily reacted with [AuCl(THT)] in dichloromethane to form the linearly coordinated complexes [AuCl(1-κP)] (5), [AuCl(2-κP)] (6) and [AuCl(3-κP)] (7), respectively. Facile deprotonation with t-BuOK or Na2CO3 of 5–7 afforded the stable, neutral dinuclear complexes [AuCl(1—H-κP,κN)]2 (8), [AuCl(2—H-κP,κN)]2 (9) and [AuCl(3—H-κP,κN)]2 (10), respectively. The crystal structures of the mononuclear complexes 5, 6 and 7 and of the dinuclear complexes 8, 9 and 10 have been determined by X-ray diffraction. The latter represent rare examples of neutral complexes supported by bridging P,N-ligands which display intramolecular Au(I)···Au(I) d10–d10 interactions, in the range 2.8592(4)–2.8831(4) Å.