A new supramolecular assembly obtained from the combination of silver(I) cations with a thiophosphorylated cavitand

The new tetra-thiophosphonatocavitand 1 in its iiii configuration extracts quantitatively Ag(+) ions from aqueous solutions; the tetranuclear complex [1(2).Ag(4)Pic(4)] was selectively formed and characterized in the solid state by X-ray diffraction which revealed the formation of a new dimeric assembly through Ag(+) coordination.