Does Aurophilicity Exist Beyond the Solid State?

Abstract

The first experimental gas-phase structure exhibiting aurophilic Au(I)···Au(I) interactions was determined by electron diffraction for the o-dimethylphosphanyl(perfluorophenylene)gold(I) dimer. The Au···Au contact is shorter than in the crystal structure, providing direct gas-phase evidence for an aurophilic attraction in a ligand-supported molecular system. High-level relativistic coupled-cluster calculations reproduce the experimental gas-phase value.