Abstract
Gold has fascinated humanity since the very early days of humankind due to its beauty. In the last three decades, its chemistry attracted attention as gold catalysts have been found to be powerful and selective for many homogeneous reactions, such as the activation of -systems. Yet, their synthesis and stability still need to be addressed, especially in the case of gold(III) complexes. Recently, our group developed a κ3-(N^C^C) pincer ligand, based on a pyridine and two aryl rings. While this template proved to be competent to stabilize highly reactive gold(III) species, the synthesis exhibited limitations regarding the group functional tolerance. We have then developed a new synthesis to access κ3-(N^C^C)gold(III) complexes, via chelation-assisted oxidative addition of gold(I) halides into the C-C bond of biphenylene. We also further explored the chemistry of these gold(III) complexes in the context of the water-gas shift reaction (WGSR), a fundamental industrial process to produce hydrogen. To do so, we synthesized novel gold(III) complexes that might be involved in the homogeneous gold-catalysed reaction and studied their reactivity. Lastly, our gold(III) complexes displayed appealing phosphorescent properties, which were incorporated as emitters in organic light emitting devices (OLEDs).
Beucher, Hélène