Towards the synthesis of coinage metal chalcogen compounds stabilized by a bidentate N-heterocyclic carbene

Abstract

Group 11 metal chalcogen clusters have been of interest due to their potential applications in light emitting materials. Although group 11 metal chalcogen complexes with phosphine ligands have been extensively examined and most of them reported do not contain N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligand. This thesis examines how the rigid bidentate NHC, 1,1’-(dibenzyl)-3,3’-(1,2-xylylene)dibenzo[d]imidazol-2-ylidene) (bisNHCBn) can be incorporated into the gold(I) metal – chalcogenolate (chalcogenolate = RSe-; R = organic moiety) and gold(I) chalcogenide (chalcogenide = Se2-) complexes. In these studies, the chalcogen reagents Se(SiMe3)2 or RSeSiMe3 are reacted with the gold coordination complex [(AuOAc)2(bisNHCBn)] to target Au(I) selenide and Au(I) selenolate clusters with bisNHCBn. The preparation, characterization, and UV-vis absorption studies of the resulting clusters are presented.