To that end, we have reported on two series of complexes, one containing simple hydrocarbon chains bound to the phenylacetylide, 8 the other employing semiperfluorocarbon chains instead (Fig. ). 9,10 Briefly, the vast majority of the complexes are liquid crystalline, showing almost exclusively columnar phases with the complexes having four chains on the pincer ligand having photoluminescent quantum yields (PLQY) of up to 36%, while those with only two chains had PLQY values of <4%. Encouragingly, OLED devices fabricated from the all-hydrocarbon complexes showed external quantum efficiencies of >7%. However, one of the great drawbacks in the preparation of complexes of this type, is that direct auration from, for example, tetrachloroaurate(III) and the free ligand does not proceed, and synthetic routes inevitably go through an intermediate chloromercury(II) complex. This is in contrast to auration of bidentate 2-phenylpyridine ligands, where direct auration is indeed possible. This was demonstrated initially by Constable and Leese 12 who first formed the neutral, N-bound AuCl3 complex of 2-phenylpyridine, which can then convert thermally to the orthometalated product. This general approach persists, for example in preparing gold N^C^C complexes where the final orthometalation is promoted by microwave irradiation. Direct reaction using microwaves is also a productive approach, 14 and, for example, Hylland et al. have recently published a very extensive study of such preparations starting from Au(OAc)3 and driven by microwave conditions. Indeed, these studies were also able to demonstrate direct auration of N^C^C ligands. Separate studies have shown that direct auration is also possible if the ligand is pre-functionalised, for example with a diazonium function, but this can lead to additional synthetic complexity depending on other substituent requirements on the ligands and also the preparation of bespoke gold precursor complexes.