Accessible gold clusters using calix[4]arene N-heterocyclic carbene and phosphine ligands

We investigate the synthesis of accessible calix[4]arene-bound gold clusters consisting of open "coordinatively unsaturated" active sites, using a comparative approach that relies on calix[4]arene ligands with various upper- and lower-rim substituents. In contrast with a reported Au(I)-tert-butyl-calixarene phosphine complex, which exhibits a single cone conformer in solution, the H upper-rim analog exhibits multiple conformers in solution. This contrasts with observations of the tert-butyl upper-rim analog, which exhibits a single cone conformer in solution under similar conditions. In the solid state, as determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, both H and tert-butyl upper-rim analogs exhibit exclusively cone conformer. A detailed structural analysis of these two solid-state structures highlights a CH-π interaction involving a methoxy lower-rim substituent and phenyl substituent on P as the key feature that enforces a tight configuration of Au(I) atoms on the same side of the calix[4]arene lower-rim plane. We hypothesize that such a configuration promotes chelation of the ligand to a gold surface and facilitates the synthesis of small Au11-sized clusters after reduction of both complexes. The new cluster, like the one reported with the tert-butyl analog, has an extraordinary 25% of surface atoms that are open and accessible to a 2-NT (2-naphthalenethiol) probe in solution. We also investigated the effect of calix[4]arene lower-rim substituents that coordinate to the metal, by using N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) functional groups rather than phosphines. Four small (