Blue-, Green- and Non-luminescent Crystals from One Reaction. Isolation and Structural Characterization of a Series of Gold(I)-Siver(I) Heterometallic Complexes Utilizing a Gold Carbene Metalloligand Containing Free Amino Groups

The metalloligand [Au{C(NHMe)(NHCH2CH2NH2)}2]Cl, 1, has been prepared by the reaction of ethylenediamine with [Au(CNMe)2]Cl. Compound 1 crystallized as a luminescent dimer with a Au···Au separation of 3.0224(4) Å. It reacted in solution with silver hexafluorophosphate to form the coordination polymer, {[Au{μ-C(NHMe)(NHCH2CH2NH2)}2Ag(NCMe)](PF6)2}n, 2. The structure of 2 involves a chain of alternating gold(I) and silver(I) ions with a Au···Ag distance of 2.9694(4)Å. The reaction of the metalloligand, 1, with silver tetrafluoroborate yielded three products: the green luminescent coordination polymer, {[Au{μ-C(NHMe)(NHCH2CH2NH2)}2Ag-(NCMe)](BF4)2}n, 3, which is analogous to 2; the non-luminescent binuclear complex, [Au{μ-C(NHMe)(NHCH2CH2NH2)}2Ag](BF4)2, 4; and the blue luminescent complex, [{μ-C(NHMe)NHCH2CH2NH(MeHN)C}Au2{μ-C(NHMe)(NHCH2CH2NH2)}2Ag](BF4)3-·3(MeCN), 5. Compound 5 involves a bent Au···Ag···Au cation with two different Au···Ag distances (2.9165(8) Å and 3.1743(8) Å). This cation self-associates through a Au···Au interaction of 3.0275(5) Å, which allows the formation of an extended zigzag chain of cations in 5.