Firstly, as we proposed, we have synthesized a series of o-trimethylsilylphosphines (as shown in Scheme 2) and the corresponding monogold chloride complexes in Scheme 3. Secondly, by using this well-designed LAuCl complexes (L = o-TMS phosphines), we have developed a method in constructing a class of hexanuclear gold(I) clusters via a AuI/Si transmetallation methodology (Scheme 4). On the other hand, we also successfully obtained a range of hexanuclear gold(I)-silver(I) clusters through a slow AuI/Si transmetallation methodology (Scheme 5), in which an essential intermediate was found as oxonium trigold complexes (Scheme 1). This slow AuI/Si transmetallation method also led to different nuclear gold(I) and gold(I)-silver(I) clusters (Scheme 6). All these gold(I) and gold(I)-silver(I) clusters have been analysed by X-ray diffraction analysis. With the known and traditional AuI-catalyzed model reactions (Table 1 and 2), we have observed interesting structure-dependent reactivity with different size with these atomically precise gold and gold-silver clusters, and a cluster-mediated catalytic process was proposed through the kinetic studies as shown in Figure 2. These results would give insights into the discovery of new gold or gold-silver catalytic systems and shed light on the structure-property relationship in gold catalysed reactions.
We have presented our results of this research in our group seminars and also three renowned and scientific conferences:
1) XVI Biennial Meeting - Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry (RSEQ), June 25-29, 2017, Sitges, Spain. In this XVI Biennial conference, we have presented our research titled as ¨Silver Doping of Hexanuclear Gold(I) Clusters Stabilized by Hemilabile Phosphine¨ in the poster section.
2) GOLD 2018, July 15-18, 2018, Paris, France. In this GOLD 2018 conference, we have presented our work titled as ¨Anionic-Arylphosphines-Stabilized Small Gold and Gold-Silver Clusters: From Mono- to Bi-metallic Catalysts¨ in the oral presentation section.
3) ICIQ-INTECAT School, December 11-13, 2018, Tarragona, Spain. In this ICIQ-INTECAT School, we have presented our work titled as ¨ From Mono- to Bi-metallic Catalysts: Anionic-Arylphosphines-Stabilized Small Gold and Gold-Silver Clusters¨ in the oral presentation section and also poster section.
Our results on “Synthesis of Catalytically Active Anionic–aryl–phosphine–protected Hexanuclear Gold/Gold–Silver Clusters via AuI/Si Transmetallation” have attracted several specialists’ attention and recognition during those conferences, and the manuscript on this topic is under preparation.