In contradiction to current bonding paradigms, two terminal Au-oxo molecular complexes havebeen synthesized by reaction of AuCl
3 with metal oxide-cluster ligands that model redox-active metal oxidesurfaces. Use of K
10[
2-P
2W
17O
61]·20H
2O and K
2WO
4 (forming the [A-PW
9O
34]
9- ligand
in situ) producesK
15H
2[Au(O)(OH
2)P
2W
18O
68]·25H
2O (
1); use of K
10[P
2W
20O
70(OH
2)
2]·22H
2O (
3) produces K
7H
2[Au(O)(OH
2)P
2W
20O
70(OH
2)
2]·27H
2O (
2). Complex
1 crystallizes in orthorhombic
Fddd, with
a = 28.594(4) Å,
b =31.866(4) Å,
c = 38.241(5) Å,
V = 34844(7) Å
3,
Z = 16 (final
R = 0.0540), and complex
2 crystallizes inhexagonal
P6(3)/
mmc, with
a = 16.1730(9) Å,
b = 16.1730(9) Å,
c = 19.7659(15) Å,
V = 4477.4(5) Å
3,
Z= 2 (final
R = 0.0634). The polyanion unit in
1 is disorder-free. Very short (~1.76 Å) Au-oxo distances areestablished by both X-ray and 30 K neutron diffraction studies, and the latter confirms oxo and
trans aqua(H
2O) ligands on Au. Seven findings clarify that Au and not W is present in the Au-oxo position in
1 and
2.Five lines of evidence are consistent with the presence of d
8 Au(III) centers that are stabilized by the flankingpolytungstate ligands in both
1 and
2: redox titrations, electrochemical measurements, 17 K optical spectra,Au L
2 edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy, and Au-oxo bond distances. Variable-temperature magneticsusceptibility data for crystalline
1 and
2 establish that both solids are diamagnetic, and
31P and
17O NMRspectroscopy confirm that both remain diamagnetic in solution. Both complexes have been furthercharacterized by FT-IR, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), andother techniques.