A 13C and 15N solid-state NMR study of structural disorder and aurophilic bonding in AuI and AuIII cyanide complexes

Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance has been used to study several cyanoaurates. Carbon-13 and nitrogen-15 NMR spectra of samples enriched with isotopically labeled 13C,15N cyanide ligands were recorded for stationary samples and samples spinning at the magic angle. Several salts of the dicyanoaurate(I) anion, M[Au(CN)2], where M = n-butylammonium, potassium, and thallium, were studied via solid-state NMR. A gold(III) cyanide, K[Au(CN)4], was also investigated. Carbon-13 and nitrogen-15 chemical shift tensors are reported for each salt, as are the measured 13C,15N direct dipolar coupling constants together with the related derived cyanide bond lengths, r(C,N). The value for r(C,N) in [(n-C4H9)4N][Au(CN)2], 1.17(5) A, was determined to be more realistic than a previously reported X-ray diffraction value of 1.03(4) A. Large 13C NMR line widths from Tl[Au(CN)2], 250-315 Hz, are attributed to coupling with 197Au (I = 3/2) and/or 203/205Tl (I = 1/2), as confirmed by measurements of the transverse relaxation constant, T2. Investigation of the carbon-13 chemical shifts for cyanide ligands bound to gold involved in a variety of metallophilic bonding environments demonstrates that the chemical shift is sensitive to metallophilic bonding. Differences in Au-Tl metallophilic bonding are shown to cause a difference in the isotropic carbon-13 chemical shift of up to 15.7 ppm, while differences in Au-Au aurophilic bonding are found to be responsible for a change of up to 5.9 ppm. The disordered polymeric material gold(I) monocyanide, AuCN, was also investigated using 13C and 15N SSNMR. Two-dimensional 13C,13C double-quantum dipolar-recoupling spectroscopy was used to probe connectivity in this material. The 13C NMR site multiplicity in AuCN is explained on the basis of sensitivity of the carbon-13 chemical shift to aurophilic bonding of the directly bonded gold atom. This assignment allows estimation of the position of the linear [-M-CN-]infinity chain's position with respect to the neighboring polymer chain. For the samples studied, a range of 7 +/- 2% to 25 +/- 5% of the AuCN chains are found to be "slipped" instead of aligned with the neighboring chains at the metal position.