While most metallic elements across the Periodic Table form stable chelating β-diketiminato complexes, examples of Au(I) are conspicuous by their absence. We report here the reaction of K[HC(F(3)CC=NR)(2)] with AuCl(PPh(3)) which provides a rare example of a thermally stable gold(I) diketiminato complex, (Ph(3)P)Au[RN=C(CF(3))CH(CF(3))C=NR] [R = 3,5-C(6)H(3)(CF(3))(2)]. The complex is highly fluxional in solution but in the solid state adopts a U-conformation. By contrast, the analogous reaction of K[HC(F(3)CC=NR)(2)] with CuBr(PPh(3))(3) gives the rigid 18-electron chelate complex (Ph(3)P)(2)Cu[κ(2)-HC{(CF(3))C=NR}(2)].

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