Evidence for Genuine Hydrogen Bonding in Gold(I) Complexes

Mathilde Rigoulet (1) , Stephane Massou (2) , E. Daiann Sosa Carrizo (3) , Sonia Mallet-Ladeira (4) , Abderrahmane Amgoune (1) , Karinne Miqueu (3) , Didier Bourissou (1)

1 LHFA - Laboratoire Hétérochimie Fondamentale et Appliquée
2 UT3 - Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier
3 IPREM - Institut des sciences analytiques et de physico-chimie pour l'environnement et les materiaux
4 LCC - Laboratoire de chimie de coordination

The ability of gold to act as proton acceptor and participate in hydrogen bonding remains an open question. Here we report the synthesis and characterization of cationic gold(I) complexes featuring ditopic phosphine-ammonium (P,NH +) ligands. Besides the presence of short Au•••H contacts in the solid state, the presence of Au•••H-N hydrogen bonds has been inferred by NMR and IR spectroscopies. The bonding situation has been extensively analysed computationally. All features are consistent with the presence of 3-center 4-electron attractive interactions combining electrostatic and orbital components. The role of relativistic effects has been examined and the analysis has been extended to other recently described gold(I) complexes.

Mots clés: gold; hydrogen bonding; non-covalent interactions; relativistic effects

Domaines: Chimie

Mathilde Rigoulet, Stephane Massou, E. Daiann Sosa Carrizo, Sonia Mallet-Ladeira, Abderrahmane Amgoune, et al.. Evidence for Genuine Hydrogen Bonding in Gold(I) Complexes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2019, 116 (1), pp.46-51. ⟨10.1073/pnas.1817194116⟩. ⟨hal-02398808⟩