Intra- vs Intermolecular Aurophilic Contacts in Dinuclear Gold(I) Compounds: Impact on the Population of the Triplet Excited State

Two series of dinuclear gold(I) complexes that contain two Au-chromophore units (chromophore = dibenzofurane or dimethylfluorene) connected through a diphosphane bridge that differs in the flexibility and length (diphosphane = dppb for 1,4-bis(diphenylphosphino)butane, DPEphos for bis[(2-diphenylphosphino)phenyl]ether, xanthphos for 4,5-bis(diphenylphosphino)-9,9-dimethylxanthene, and BiPheP for 2,2′-bis(diphenylphosphino)-1,1′-biphenyl) have been synthesized and structurally characterized. Their photophysical properties have been carefully investigated, paying attention to the role of the presence, or absence, of aurophilic contacts and their nature (intra- or intermolecular character). This analysis was permitted due to the X-ray crystallographic determination of all of the structures of the compounds discussed herein. The quantum yields of the triplet population, φ_T, have been calculated by nanosecond-laser flash photolysis measurements, and we could determine the main role of the character of the aurophilic contacts in the resulting φ_T, being especially favored in the presence of intermolecular contacts. Time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations support the absorption and emission assignments and the shorter distance between S₁and the closest triplet excited state energy in the case of the compounds with a higher triplet-state population.