Gold carbene complexes and beyond: new avenues in gold(I)-carbon coordination chemistry

Abstract

The different coordination modes in carbon-gold(I) complexes are spotlighted with a focus on gold(I). The emergence of gold carbene complexes and their critical discussion in the community is presented, and an overview of their bonding fundamentals and synthetic procedures is given. Several intriguing and sometimes highly reactive gold-carbon coordination complexes that were recently synthesised and isolated are reviewed and a critical outlook into their potential applications is provided. This includes vinylidene and higher cumulenylidene complexes, free carbenes with gold substituents, carbodicarbene complexes, and non-Fischer/Schrock sesquicarbene complexes.