Molecular Gold Wire from Mixed-Valent Au(I/III) Complexes.

Crystals of mixed-valent Au complexes have been grown from solutions of cyclohexanecarbonitrile and a stoichiometric amount of gold(I) and gold(III) chloride. The purely obtained compound was characterized as bis(cyclohexanecarbonitrile)gold(I) tetrachloridoaurate(III). The crystal packing of the mixed valent Au(I/III) compound demonstrates a columnar arrangement of the gold(I) and gold(III) atoms. The new structure displays the shortest unsupported gold(I)-gold(III) interactions with the sub-van der Waals distance of 324-325 pm, which is assumed as an aurophilic bonding interaction.