Oxidative addition reactions of methyl substituted binuclear gold complexes studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

X-ray photoelectron spectra of homovalent binuclear gold complexes with oxidation states of +I, +II, +III as well as heterovalent gold(I)–gold(III) species were obtained. The binding energies for the gold 4f peaks increase as the gold oxidation state increases. Residual gas analysis showed that the gold(I)–gold(III) heterovalent compound is photoreduced to a homovalent gold(I) compound.