A stable Cerberus tris(maloNHC) and its coinage metal complexes.

The first trisanionic Cerberus-type maloNHC has been generated and coordinated to two different coinage metals (Au(i) and Ag(i)). The resulting triszwitterionic metal complexes have been characterized by NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and X-ray crystallography. The molecular structures of the new metal complexes reveal an average AuAu and AgAg separation of 20.89 and 21.03 Å respectively, the longest distances reported to date for any related Cerberus-type NHCs.