Preparation and reactivity of terminal gold(<scp>i</scp>) amides and phosphides

Nucleophilic terminal gold(I) amides have been prepared and their reactivity toward a variety of electrophiles has been explored. For the first time these frequently proposed intermediates were isolated and shown to be unreactive in the amination of π-bonds. The first crystallographically determined terminal group 11 metal phosphide was also synthesized. Preliminary DFT studies have been conducted to understand the structure and reactivity of these complexes.