A simple halide and silver-free synthesis of Echavarren's catalyst directly from gold powder

A simple synthesis of Echavarren's catalyst via oxidation of gold powder with [NO][BF4] in acetonitrile followed by addition of Johnphos is presented.

The quaternary arsenide oxides Ce9Au5–xAs8O6 and Pr9Au5–xAs8O6

The quaternary gold arsenide oxides Ce9Au5−xAs8O6 and Pr9Au5−xAs8O6 were synthesized from the rare earth elements (RE), rare earth oxides, arsenic and gold powder at maximum annealing temperatures of 1173 K. The structures were refined from single crystal X-ray diffractometer data: Pnnm, a=1321.64(6) pm, b=4073.0(3), c=423.96(2), wR2=0.0842, 3106 F2 values, 160 variables for Ce9Au4.91(4)As8O6 and Pnnm, a=1315.01(4), b=4052.87(8), c=420.68(1) pm, wR2=0.0865, 5313 F2 values, 160 variables for Pr9Au4.75(1)As8O6. They represent a new structure type and show a further extension of pnictide oxide crystal chemistry. A complex polyanionic gold arsenide network [Au5As8]15− (with some disorder in the gold substructure) is charge compensated with polycationic strands of condensed edge-sharing O@RE4/4 and O@RE4/3 tetrahedra ([RE4O3]212+) as well as RE3+ cations in cavities.