An element through the looking glass: Exploring the Au-C, Au-H and Au-O energy landscape

Gold, the archetypal “noble metal”, used to be considered of little interest in catalysis. It is now clear that this was a misconception, and a multitude of gold-catalysed transformations has been reported. However, one consequence of the long-held view of gold as inert metal is that its organometallic chemistry contains many “unknowns”, and catalytic cycles devised to explain gold's reactivity draw largely on analogies with other transition metals. How realistic are such mechanistic assumptions? In the last few years a number of key compound classes have been discovered that can provide some answers. This Perspective attempts to summarise these developments, with particular emphasis on recently discovered gold(III) complexes with bonds to hydrogen, oxygen, alkenes and CO ligands

Synthesis and electrochemical and photophysical properties of calixarene-based ruthenium(II) complexes as potential multivalent photoreagents.

The grafting of photoreactive and photooxidizing Ru(II)(TAP) (TAP = 1,4,5,8-tetraazaphenanthrene) complexes on calix[4 or 6]arene molecular platforms is reported. Thus, either [Ru(TAP)2(phen)](2+) (phen = 1,10-phenanthroline) or [Ru(TAP)2(pytz)](2+) [pytz = 2-(1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)pyridine] complexes are anchored to the calixarenes. The data in electrochemistry, combined with those in emission under steady state and pulsed illumination and the determination of the associated photophysical rate constants, indicate the presence of intramolecular luminescence quenching by the phenol moieties of calixarene. From transient absorption studies under pulsed laser irradiation, it is concluded that the quenching originates from a par proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) process. Such an intramolecular quenching is absent when the phenol groups of the calixarene platform are derivatized by azido arms.Journal ArticleSCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe