Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Wang, Xue-Bin
• Wang, Yi-Lei
• Yang, Jie
• Xing, Xiao-Peng
• Li, Jun
• Wang, Lai-Sheng

Titel

Evidence of Significant Covalent Bonding in Au(CN)2

Ist Teil von

• Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2009-11, Vol.131 (45), p.16368-16370

Ort / Verlag

United States: American Chemical Society

Erscheinungsjahr

2009

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The Au(CN)2 − ion is the most stable Au compound known for centuries, yet a detailed understanding of its chemical bonding is still lacking. Here we report direct experimental evidence of significant covalent bonding character in the Au−C bonds in Au(CN)2 − using photoelectron spectroscopy and comparisons with its lighter congeners, Ag(CN)2 − and Cu(CN)2 −. Vibrational progressions in the Au−C stretching mode were observed for all detachment transitions for Au(CN)2 −, in contrast to the atomic-like transitions for Cu(CN)2 −, revealing the Au−C covalent bonding character. In addition, rich electronic structural information was obtained for Au(CN)2 − by employing 118 nm detachment photons. Density functional theory and high-level ab initio calculations were carried out to understand the photoelectron spectra and obtain insight into the nature of the chemical bonding in the M(CN)2 − complexes. Significant covalent character in the Au−C bonding due to the strong relativistic effects was revealed in Au(CN)2 −, consistent with its high stability.