Synthesis and multinuclear NMR investigation on gold–phosphine–catecholato-complexes

Ag+-assisted dechlorination of Gold(I) and Gold(III) phosphine complexes followed by the reaction with catecholes (H2CA) in the presence of Et3N gives neutral violet complexes, whereas 1–9, 8a, 14–16 are Gold(I) two coordinate linear complexes and 10–13 are Gold(III) square planar four coordinate complexes. The 17 new complexes are characterised by ESIMS, IR and multinuclear NMR (1H, 13C, 19F, 31P) spectroscopic studies. In addition, dimensional NMR studies like 1H–1H COSY permit a complete assignment of the complexes in the solution phase.