The Chemistry of Gold Fluoride Complexes

The gold-fluorine bond represents a rare class of chemical bond, with only a handful of notable examples having been prepared and characterized. The extreme reactivity of the homoleptic gold fluorides AuF, AuF3, and AuF5 makes these compounds difficult to prepare and has limited their applications beyond fundamental study. However, the inherent reactivity of the gold fluoride bond can be harnessed by using ancillary ligands to support the metal center. Heteroleptic gold fluorides containing both Au(I) or Au(III) centers have been prepared and have found applications in catalysis, where the gold-fluoride bond is implicated as a key reactive moiety. The present review summarizes the preparation of both homo- and heteroleptic gold fluoride complexes and the development of catalytic transformations involving gold-fluoride bonds. Keywords: catalysis; gold; fluorine; organometallics; oxidation