Crystal structure of di­chlorido­[2-(di­phenyl­phosphan­yl)-3,4,5,6-tetra­fluoro­benzene-1-thiol­ato-κ2 P,S]gold(III)

The title compound, [Au(C18H10F4PS)Cl2], crystallizes as neutral mol-ecules, with the Au(III) atom coordinated by two Cl atoms and by the P and S atoms of the bidentate phosphanyl thiol-ate ligand, in a slightly distorted square-planar environment. The mol-ecules are linked into centrosymmetric dimers via long axial Au-Cl bonds of 3.393 (4) Å. This axial Au-Cl distance is longer than is usually seen, although one other example has been given. Dimer formation may explain the unexpectedly low solubility of the compound in common polar solvents. There is also a separate inter-molecular Au-F contact of 3.561 (6) Å, but this distance seems too long to be regarded as a bond. Two putative C-H⋯F hydrogen bonds appear to link the dimers into sheets parallel to (110). There is a short inter-molecular F⋯F contact of 2.695 (10) Å between two dimers related by the twofold axis.