Chiral Heterobimetallic Gold(I) Ferrocenyldithiophosphonato Complexes

Chiral and non-chiral ferrocenyldithiophosphonates [tBuNH(3)][Fe(eta(5)-C5H5){eta(5)-C5H4P(OR)S-2}] were prepared from [Fe(eta(5)-C5H5){eta(5)-C5H4PS(mu-S)}](2) and the respective alcohol ROH [R = bornyl (1), myrtenyl (2), adamantyl (3)] and tBuNH(2) as base. The reaction with [AuCl(tht)] (tht = tetrahydrothiophene) gave the corresponding chiral (1a, 2a) and non-chiral (3a) heterobimetallic dimeric gold(I) ferrocenyldithiophosphonato complexes [Au{Fe(eta(5)-C5H5)(eta(5)-C5H4P(OR)(mu-S)(2))}](2) [R = bornyl (1a), myrtenyl (2a), adamantyl (3a)]. Compounds 1-3 and 1a-3a were characterised spectroscopically (IR, H-1, C-13, P-31 NMR) and by mass spectrometry, and the chiral heterobimetallic dimeric gold(I) ferrocenyldithiophosphonato complex 1a was also structurally characterised by X-ray crystallography.