title: Direct evidence for intermolecular oxidative addition of σ(Si-Si) bonds to gold.
abstract: Oxidative addition plays a major role in transition-metal catalysis, but this elementary step remains very elusive in gold chemistry. It is now revealed that in the presence of GaCl3, phosphine gold chlorides promote the oxidative addition of disilanes at low temperature. The ensuing bis(silyl) gold(III) complexes were characterized by quantitative (31)P and (29)Si NMR spectroscopy. Their structures (distorted Y shape) and the reaction profile of σ(Si-Si) bond activation were analyzed by DFT calculations. These results provide evidence for the intermolecular oxidative addition of σ(Si-Si) bonds to gold and open promising perspectives for the development of new gold-catalyzed redox transformations.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Hétérochimie Fondamentale et Appliquée, Université Paul Sabatier/CNRS UMR 5069, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 09 (France) http://hfa.ups-tlse.fr/LBPB/index_lbpb.htm.
authors.forename: Maximilian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Joost
authors.forename: Pauline
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gualco
authors.forename: Yannick
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Coppel
authors.forename: Karinne
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Miqueu
authors.forename: Christos E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Kefalidis
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Maron
authors.forename: Abderrahmane
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Amgoune
authors.forename: Didier
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bourissou
keywords: NMR spectroscopy; density functional calculations; gold; oxidative additions; silicon