Gas-phase synthesis and reactivity of binuclear gold hydride cations, (R3PAu)2H (R = Me and Ph)

Abstract

Electrospray ionization of a mixture of the two gold phosphine chlorides, R3PAuCl (R = Ph and Me), silver nitrate and the amino acid N,N-dimethylglycine (DMG) yields a range of gold containing cluster ions including: (R3P)Au(PR′3)+; (R 3PAu)(R′3PAu)Cl+ and (R 3PAu)(R′3PAu)(DMG-H)+ (where R = R′ = Ph; R = R′ = Me; R = Me and R′ = Ph). Collision induced dissociation (CID) of the (R3PAu)(R′3PAu)(DMG-H) + precursor ions yielded the hitherto unknown gold hydride dimers (R3PAu)(R′3PAu)H+. The gas-phase chemistry of these dimers was studied using ion-molecule reactions, collision induced dissociation, electronic excitation dissociation (EED) and DFT calculations on the (H3PAu)2H+ model system. A no..