Cationic dimetallic gold hydride complex stabilized by a xantphos-phosphole ligand: synthesis, X-ray crystal structure, and density functional theory study.

The bis-2,5-diphenylphosphole xantphos ligand (XDPP) 1 reacts with the [AuCl(tht)] complex to afford the monocoordinated [Au(XDPP)Cl] 2 and the dicoordinated chelate species [Au(XDPP)Cl] 3. Addition of AgOTf on this mixture, at room temperature, affords the cationic [Au(XDPP)][OTf] complex 4 which was fully characterized. An X-ray crystal structure analysis confirms the bent structure of this 14 VE ML(2) complex. Reaction of 4 with HSiMe(2)Ph in tetrahydrofuran at -78 degrees C yields the dinuclear (XDPP)Au-H-Au(XDPP) cationic complex 5, in which the hydride bridges the two Au(XDPP) metal fragments. In 5, the Au-P bond lengths are different and the phosphorus atoms which are located nearly trans to the hydride ligand exhibit significantly shorter P-Au bond lengths. Reaction of 4 with DSiMe(2)Ph to form the (XDPP)Au-D-Au(XDPP) complex 6 allowed to unambiguously ascribe the chemical shift of the deuteride in (2)H NMR (delta = 7.0 ppm with a (2)J(DP) = 8.4 Hz. The electronic structure of the (XDPP)Au-H-Au(XDPP) complex was studied through density functional theory calculations. An orbital analysis is developed in which complex 5 is viewed as the combination of two 12 electrons fragments Au(XDPP) with H(-). This analysis reveals that the hydride interacts in a bonding way with the sigma MO between the two gold atoms and in an antibonding way with a combination of d orbitals at the metal centers. This simple description allows to rationalize the inequivalence of the two types of P-Au bonds in 5.