The class of “porcupine compounds”, includes the title cation 1, whose structure has been determined as the BPh4 salt. The analytically, mass‐spectrometrically and crystallographically detected interstitial C atom occupies the crystallographic inversion center in an octahedron composed of gold atoms: the structure is probably stabilized by AuċAu interactions. The periphery of tetraauriomethanes is apparently “aurophile” with respect to further LAu⊕ ions, so that the hypervalent complex cation [C(AuL)6]2⊕ is formed spontaneously. The supposedly uncentered octahedral cluster cations formulated previously as (AuL) 62⊕ were in fact probably indentical with the C‐centered species described here.

Spin-state switching of transition-metal complexes (spin crossover) is sensitive to a variety of tiny perturbations. It is often found to be suppressed for molecules directly adsorbed on solid surfaces. We present X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements of a submonolayer of [Fe(II)(NCS)2L] (L: 1-{6-[1,1-di(pyridin-2-yl)ethyl]-pyridin-2-yl}-N,N-dimethylmethanamine) deposited on a highly oriented pyrolytic graphite substrate in ultrahigh vacuum. These molecules undergo a thermally induced, fully reversible, gradual spin crossover with a transition temperature of T1/2 = 235(6) K and a transition width of ΔT80 = 115(8) K. Our results show that by using a carbon-based substrate the spin-crossover behavior can be preserved even for molecules that are in direct contact with a solid surface.

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A tetrapodal pentadentate nitrogen ligand (2,6-bis(1,1-di(aminomethyl)ethyl)pyridine, 1) is used for the synthesis of the azido-iron(III) complex [(1)Fe(N3)]X2 where X is either Br or PF6. By means of electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, the dication [(1)Fe(N3)]2+ can be transferred into the gas phase as an intact entity. Upon collisional activation, [(1)Fe(N3)]2+ undergoes an expulsion of molecular nitrogen to afford the dicationic nitrido-iron species [(1)FeN]2+ as an intermediate, which upon further activation can intramolecularly activate C-H- and N-H bonds of the chelating ligand 1 or can transfer an NH unit in bimolecular reactions with activated olefins. The precursor dication [(1)Fe(N3)]2+, the resulting nitrido species [(1)FeN]2+, and its possible isomers are investigated by mass spectrometric experiments, isotopic labeling, and complementary computational studies using density functional theory.