Photooxidation of Dicyanoaurate(I) Induced by Metal-to-Ligand Charge Transfer Excitation

The irradiation of [Au(CN)2]- in oxygen-saturated acetonitrile leads to photooxidation of Au(I). In the presence of additional chloride [Au(CN)2CL2]- is formed with φ= 0.5 x 10-4 at λirr = 254 nm. It is assumed that [Au(CN)2]- in its metal-to-ligand charge transfer state undergoes an excited state electron transfer to oxygen in the primary photochemical step.