Dihydrogen and Acetylene Activation by a Gold(I)/Platinum(0) Transition Metal Only Frustrated Lewis Pair

The
first example of a frustrated Lewis pair (FLP) solely constructed
around transition metal centers is described in this work. We have
focused on the established capacity of Au­(I) and Pt(0) complexes to
act as Lewis acidic and basic fragments, respectively, while employing
sufficiently bulky PtBu3 and
terphenyl phosphine ligands. This avoids formation of metallic Lewis
adducts and confers the Au­(I)/Pt(0) pair a remarkable capacity to
activate dihydrogen and acetylene molecules in a fashion that closely
resembles that of traditional main group FLP systems. As a consequence,
unusual heterobimetallic Au­(I)/Pt­(II) complexes containing hydride
(−H), acetylide (−CCH), and vinylene (−HCCH−)
bridges have been isolated.