Directed Design of a AuI Complex with a Reduced Mesoionic Carbene Radical Ligand: Insights from 1,2,3-Triazolylidene Selenium Adducts and Extensive Electrochemical Investigations

Carbene-based radicals are important for both fundamental and applied chemical research. Herein, extensive electrochemical investigations of nine different 1,2,3-triazolylidene selenium adducts are reported. It is found that the half-wave potentials of the first reduction of the selones correlate with their calculated LUMO levels and the LUMO levels of the corresponding triazolylidene-based mesoionic carbenes (MICs). Furthermore, unexpected quasi-reversibility of the reduction of two triazoline selones, exhibiting comparable reduction potentials, was discovered. Through UV/Vis/NIR and EPR spectroelectrochemical investigations supported by DFT calculations, the radical anion was unambiguously assigned to be triazoline centered. This electrochemical behavior was transferred to a triazolylidene-type MIC-gold phenyl complex resulting in a MIC-radical coordinated AuI species. Apart from UV-Vis-NIR and EPR spectroelectrochemical investigations of the reduction, the reduced gold-coordinated MIC radical complex was also formed in situ in the bulk through chemical reduction. This is the first report of a monodentate triazolylidene-based MIC ligand that can be reduced to its anion radical in a metal complex. The results presented here provide design principles for stabilizing radicals based on MICs.

NHC-Au(i) complexes bearing trispyrazolyl borate (Tp) ligands: efficient platforms for bimetallic species

Treatment of NHC-AuCl (NHC = IPr and IMes) complexes with equimolar amounts of KTpR2 (R = Me, H) salts in tetrahydrofuran produces in high yields the heteroleptic complexes 3-6 with the general formula NHC-Au-TpR2. As the TpR ligand in complexes 3-6 features a k1-N type coordination toward the gold(i) center, the subsequent addition of group 10 and 11 metal precursors (NiII, PtII, CuII) results in the isolation of heterobimetallic Au/M complexes supported by TpR platforms. All new metal complexes have been fully characterized by elemental analysis and NMR spectroscopy, and in the case of 3, 4 and 6 by X-ray crystallography.