Au L-edge XAS of gold complexes: one-electron processes @ gold

Gold chemistry has tremendously progressed recently but so far, it is essentially all based on Au(I) and Au(III) complexes. Au(IV) complexes are unprecedented and single-electron processes are extremely rare. Herein, we propose to explore Au(III) complexes featuring redox-active ligands with the aim to open a new facet in gold chemistry. The unprecedented and open-shell nature of such species make X-ray absorption spectroscopy most relevant and valuable to assess their electronic and coordination environment. Gold L-edge XAS will be applied as a direct experimental probe and the experimental data will be paralleled with theoretical calculations. Applications to redox-switchable and photoredox catalysis are envisioned.