Aurophilic interactions in a mixed-valent Au I/III 4-cyanothiazole complex

Many compounds possessing close Au I ...Au I contacts are known, yet their mixed-valent analogs Au I /Au III are described in literature as rare. Here we report the structural analysis of a newly obtained complex bis(4-cyanothiazole)gold(I) tetrachloridoaurate(III). To the best of authors' knowledge the compound bears second shortest Au I ...Au III contacts of 3.294 (4) Å known to date, in the mixed valent unsupported systems. This interaction has been analyzed using DFT-based quantum-mechanical calculations relying on Bader's quantum theory of atoms in molecules.