Effect of aryl ligands on the chemical hardness of arylmercury cations

¹⁹F NMR spectroscopy was used to study the exchange reactions involving 4-fluorothiophenoxides, 4-nitrophenoxides, chlorides, and acetates of arylmercury and triphenylphosphinegold. The analysis of the data on equilibrium constants allows one to obtain information on the comparative chemical hardness of ArHg⁺ and Ph₃PAu⁺ cations. The increase in the electron-donating ability of aryl ligands enhances the chemical hardness of ArHg⁺ cations, their influence being best described by ⁰ constants of substituted phenyl groups.Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 5, pp. 1255–1260, May, 1996.