A Stable Crystalline Copper(I)-N O Complex Stabilized as the Salt of a Weakly Coordinating Anion.

Nitrous oxide is considered a poor ligand, and therefore only a handful of well-defined metal-N O complexes are known. Oxidation of copper powder with an extreme oxidant, [Ag I ][An] ([An] =[Al(OC(CF ) ) ] ) in perfluorinated hexane leads to Cu [An], the first auxiliary ligand-free Cu salt of the perfluorinated alkoxyaluminate anion. The compound is capable of forming a stable and crystalline complex with nitrous oxide, Cu(N O)[An], where the Cu-N O bond is by far the strongest among all other molecular metal-N O complexes known. Thorough characterization of the compounds together with the crystal structure of Cu(N O)[An] complex supported with DFT calculations are presented. These give insight into the bonding in the Cu -N O system and confirm N-end coordination of the ligand.