Phosphorescent Excited State of [Au 2 {(Ph 2 Sb) 2 O} 3 ] 2+ : Jahn−Teller Distortion at Only One Gold(I) Center

Dinuclear three-coordinate Au(I) complex [Au2{(Ph2Sb)2O}3](ClO4)2 1 displays an interesting phosphorescent behavior in which a large Stokes' shift is observed. Ab initio calculations show that the main distortion for the first triplet excited state, which is responsible for the luminescence behavior of complex 1, is a Jahn-Teller distortion for only one of the Au(I) centers together with a gold-gold distance shortening. This behavior could be extrapolated to other phosphorescent dinuclear three-coordinate Au(I) complexes.