Seeing luminescence appear as crystals crumble. Isolation and subsequent self-association of individual [(CHNC)Au] ions in crystals.

Non-luminescent, isostructural crystals of [(CHNC)Au](EF)·CH (E = As, Sb) lose benzene upon standing in air to produce green luminescent (E = As) or blue luminescent (E = Sb) powders. Previous studies have shown that the two-coordinate cation, [(CHNC)Au], self-associates to form luminescent crystals that contain linear or nearly linear chains of cations and display unusual polymorphic, vapochromic, and/or thermochromic properties. Here, we report the formation of non-luminescent crystalline salts in which individual [(CHNC)Au] ions are isolated from one another.

Unsymmetrical Coordination of Bipyridine in Three-Coordinate Gold(I) Complexes.

The unsymmetrical coordination of gold(I) by 2,2'-bipyridine (bipy) in some planar, three-coordinate cations has been examined by crystallographic and computational studies. The salts [(PhP)Au(bipy)]XF (X = P, As, Sb) form an isomorphic series in which the differences in Au-N distances range from 0.241(2) to 0.