Di- and trinuclear gold complexes of diphenylphosphinoethyl-functionalised imidazolium salts and their N-heterocyclic carbenes: synthesis and photophysical properties.

Diphenylphosphinoethyl-functionalised imidazolium salts and their silver-carbene complexes were used to synthesise a series of di- and trinuclear gold complexes through ligand exchange and transmetallation, respectively. Besides a few positively charged macrocyclic compounds with different anions (both with and without activation of the carbene function), we were able to obtain neutral polynuclear complexes by varying the gold precursor. The synthesised gold complexes show a variety of photophysical properties, including bright white photoluminescence at ambient temperature.