Andreas Bauer and Hubert Schmidbaur
Insertion of GeCl2 into the Au–Cl bonds of [(AuCl)2(dppm)] or [(AuCl)2(dppe)] (dppm = Ph2PCH2PPh2 and dppe = Ph2PCH2CH2PPh 2) leads to the formation of bis(trichlorogermyl) complexes [Au2(dppm/e)2]2+[Au(GeCl3) 2]2-, of which the dppm complex undergoes slow decomposition in solution to give [Au2(dppm)2][Au(GeCl3)3], where the gold atom of the dianion is co-ordinated solely to three germanium atoms.