The interaction of sodium tetrachloropalladate(II) with the potentially tridentate aminophosphine bis [2-(diphenylphosphino)ethyl]amine (PNHP) in 1 : 1 molar ratio leads to the formation of the four-coordinate complex [Pd(PNHP)Cl]Cl (1). Complex 1 undergoes chloro substitution reactions with NaX (X ¼ Br, I), CuCl, AgNO 3 , the amino acid N-acetyl-L-cysteine (AcCysSH) and the tripeptide reduced glutathione GS (9)]. However, gold(I) induces abstraction of the aminophosphine from the ionic complexes 1 and 2 to produce the neutral compounds Au 2 (PNHP)X 2 [X ¼ Cl (5), Br (6)]. The dinuclear complex Au 2 (PN(NO)P)Cl 2 (5a), containing the ligand bis[2-(diphenylphosphino)ethyl]nitrosylamine, was formed by reaction of 4 with gold(I) in the presence of traces of nitrosyl chloride. Addition of one molar equivalent of PNHP to 1 results, by a ring-opening process, in the formation of [Pd(PNHP) 2 ]Cl 2 (7) in which the palladium is five-coordinate. The ionic complexes 1, 2 and 4 were shown by X-ray diffraction to be distorted square-planar and complex 2 has a N-HÁ Á ÁBr bond of 2.371 + A with the ligand adopting a boat conformation. The X-ray crystal structure of the novel neutral compound 5a shows linear P-Au-Cl arrangements with intermolecular AuÁ Á ÁAu interactions of 3.0412(9) + A.