The synthesis and characterization of gold(I) complexes of butyl xanthate [Au(2)((n)()Bu-xanthate)(2)], 1, and ethyl xanthate [Au(2)(Et-xanthate)(2)], 2, are described. These complexes are readily prepared from the reaction between Au(THT)Cl (THT = tetrahydrothiophene) and the corresponding xanthate ligands as the potassium salts. The two xanthate complexes are characterized by (1)H NMR, IR, mass spectrometry, elemental analysis, and UV-vis techniques. Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA) show that the gold xanthate complexes decompose to yield mainly gold metal at approximately 200 degrees C, confirmed by X-ray powder diffraction. Excitation of the complexes at 450 nm in the solid state at 77 K produces a strong red emission at ca. 690 nm with a broad asymmetric profile tailing to 850 nm. The dinuclear gold(I) xanthate complex, [Au(2)(nBu-xanthate)(2)], 1, is the first structurally characterized binary Au(I) xanthate. The Au...Au distance in the eight-membered ring is 2.8494(15) A while the shortest intermolecular Au...Au interaction between independent units is 3.64 A. The angle between the planes containing the molecules in the unit cell is approximately 69.56 degrees. The light green plates of [Au(mu-S(2)COBu(n))](2) crystallize in the orthorhombic space group P2(1)2(1)2 with a = 37.254(14) A, b = 7.287(3) A, c = 6.054(2) A, alpha = beta = gamma = 90 degrees, Z = 4, and V = 1643.4(11) A(3).