Silver(I) complexation of (poly)aromatic ligands. Structural criteria for depth penetration into cis-stilbenoid cavities.

Silver(I) complexes with aromatic donors are thoroughly analyzed (with aid of the Cambridge Crystallographic Database) to identify the basic structural factors inherent to the bonding of an arene ligand. Most strikingly, the distance parameter d (which simply measures the normal separation of Ag from the mean aromatic plane) is singularly invariant at d = 2.41 +/- 0.05 A for all silver/arene complexes, independent of the hapticity (eta 1 or eta 2), hybridization, or multiple coordination. As such, a systematic series of stilbenoid ligands has been successfully designed to precisely modulate the penetration of silver(I) into the ligand cleft, and a multicentered poly(arene) ligand (X) designed to form a one-dimensional assembly of Ag/arene units. Simply stated, the depth penetration of silver(I) into the aromatic cavities of various cis-stilbenoid donors can be precisely predicted with a single parameter gamma that measures the separation of the two cofacial aryl groups comprising the cleft. This simple geometric consideration must be taken into account in any successful design of novel (poly)aromatic ligands for silver(I) complexation to constitute new molecular architectures.