Abstract
IN its complex compounds, tervalent gold appears to be invariably four-covalent, the four bonds being co-planar and pointing to the corners of a square, as in K[AuBr4],2H2O1. This suggests the use of 5d6s6p2 bonds, which is in accordance with the observed diamagnetism of tervalent gold compounds2. The stereochemistry of univalent gold, however, is less well defined. As a rule, the co-ordination number is two, and examples of this include the anion3 [AuCl2]− and the phosphine complexes of the type [R3P,AuX]., where X = halogen4. In those cases which have been investigated by X-rays, the two bonds to the gold atom are co-linear5.
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NYHOLM, R. Stereochemistry of Gold. Nature 168, 705 (1951). https://doi.org/10.1038/168705a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/168705a0
