A Gold Mine of Surprising Chemistry: Reactions of Gold(III) with 1,3,7-trithiacyclononane

Our research focused on understanding fundamental aspects of Gold(III) coordination and organometallic chemistry. Gold(III) was chosen because of its tendency to form square planar complexes and unusual ability to readily reduce to Gold(I). In particular, the reactions of the tridentate 1,3,7-trithiacyclononane (9S3) ligand with gold were explored. Gold(III) complexes are important in catalysis and also in solid-state emissive materials. NMR and X-ray crystallography were used to characterize the complexes of this study. Numerous unexpected reaction products were obtained, many of which could only be identified by crystallography.