Abstract The arylation of carbonylgold chloride with diarylzinc compounds yields either triarylgoldzinc or diarylgoldzinc chlorides, depending on the reactant ratio and the nature of the aryl group. The same reactions with diphenylcadmium and diphenylmercury yield exclusively diphenylgoldcadmium chloride and diphenylgoldmercury chloride, respectively. The reactions of the products with N , N , N ′, N ′-tetramethylethylenediamine and triphenylphosphine were studied. Phenylgold has been obtained as a very unstable solid from diphenylgoldzinc chloride and diphenylgoldmercury chloride.