Gold acyls and imidoyls prepared from anionic Fischer-type carbene complexes

Reaction of [(CO)5WC(O)Ph]Li or [(CO)5WC(O)Ph]NBu4 with Ph3PAuCl affords acyl complexes of gold. In the latter conversion, both the crystalline products [(CO)5WCl]NBu4 (2) and Ph3PAuC(O)Ph (3) have been isolated and fully characterised. Similarly, imidoyl gold compounds (4–8) result from deprotonated aminocarbene complexes, [(CO)5MC(NR2)R1]Li (M = Cr, W; R1 = Ph, Me; R2 = H, Me) and Ph3PAuCl. Crystal and molecular structure determinations of dinuclear [Ph3PAuC(NH)Ph] · Cr(CO)5 (6) show N-coordination of the chromium carbonyl unit that selectively affords a Z-isomer.