Axially chiral allenyl gold complexes.

Unprecedented allenyl gold complexes have been achieved starting from triphenylpropargylphosphonium bromide. Two different coordination modes of the allene isomer of triphenylphosphoniumpropargylide to gold have been found depending on the gold oxidation state. Bromo-, pentafluorophenyl-, and triphenylphosphine-gold(I) allenyl complexes were prepared in which the α carbon coordinates to the gold(I) center. A chiral pentafluorophenyl-gold(III) allenyl complex with the gold atoms coordinated to the γ carbon was also prepared. All the complexes have been structurally characterized by X-ray diffraction showing the characteristic distances for a C═C═C unit.