Gold complexes with coordinated phosphorus atoms

Phosphonium ylides, which can be written in the two familiar canonical forms, are available with a wide variety of substituents both at the phosphorus and at the carbon atoms (Scheme 30). In gold complexes, without any exceptions, they function as two-electron donors, as proposed by the dipolar form to give discrete Au-C cr-bonds (771, monohapto). No side-on, 7r-coordination (t 2), as might be expected out of the ylene form, has been observed to date. 

Figure 6. XANES spectra for a series of gold(I) complexes with zero, one, two, and jour phosphorus atoms coordinated to gold. The absorption peak at 11.927 keV increases as the number of bouttd phosphorus atoms increases. Compound identification given in text.

Carbonyl-stabilized phosphorus ylides are less nucleophilic and hence do not react with (phosphine)gold(I) halides, but their gold(I) complexes can be generated from precursors such as [Au(acac)(PPh3)] or [AuCl(SC4Hg)] by reaction with phosphonium salts and ylides, respectively, and again both mono- and bis(yhde) complexes have been obtained (equation 48 and Scheme 8)206 207. The ylide carbon atoms in these complexes are centres of chirality, but no stereospecificity was observed in the coordination process and racemic mixtures are formed throughout. 

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