Chemistry of Organometallic Compounds and Applications Note Reductive Elimination of Ethane From Trimethyl(triphenylphosphine) gold(III) Induced by Dimethyl Acetylenedicarboxylate

Abstract

Reductive elimination of ethane from trimethyl(triphenylphosphine)goldap is strongly accelerated by the addition of dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate. S-shaped logistic time-yield curve suggests the autocatalytic property of this reaction. In fact, addition of the reaction. product, methyl(triphenylphosphine)gold( I ), into the reaction mixture diminish the induction period. A mechanism involving an unstable Au( III )-Au( I ) bimetallic species has been proposed.