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Updated: Jul 4, 2026

Synthesis and Catalytic Performance of Gold Intercalated in the Walls of Mesoporous Silica
Published on: July 9, 2015
Gas-phase synthesis and reactivity of a gold carbene complex
Alexey Fedorov1, Marc-Etienne Moret, Peter Chen
1Laboratorium für Organische Chemie, ETH Zürich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 10, CH-8093, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry of a phosphonium ylid complex of gold produces an ion whose mass and gas-phase chemical reactivity indicate that it is a gold benzylidene complex. The complex, with a supporting NHC ligand, corresponds to a type of reactive intermediates which have been presumed to act in gold-catalyzed cyclopropanation reactions, but which have not been observed to date in solution or gas-phase experiments. A threshold CID experiment also yields thermochemical information on the formation of the gold carbene from the ylid complex precursor.
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