Molecular design of luminescent dinuclear gold(I) thiolate complexes: from fundamentals to chemosensing

A number of dinuclear gold(I) phosphine thiolates have been synthesized and characterized. Detailed spectroscopic and luminescence studies have provided a fundamental understanding on their spectroscopic origins, which serves as the basis for the design of versatile spectrochemical and luminescence chemosensors as well as molecular optoelectronic on-off switching devices based on the switching on and off of weak metal(...)metal interactions using the dinuclear gold(I) phosphine thiolate as the basic building block. The binding characteristics have been studied by both UV-vis and emission spectroscopic measurements, and the identities of the ion-bound species have been confirmed by electrospray-ionization mass spectrometric studies. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.