Different Metallophilic Attitudes Revealed by Compression

Two isostructural coordination polymers with coinage metal(I) cationswere compressed with the purpose of testing interactions between chains, which maytrigger metallophilic interactions or otherwise expand the metal coordination. DFTcalculations and X-ray diffraction studies reveal an extraordinary difference betweenAg(I) and Cu(I) in homologous compounds. Argentophilic interactions are favored bya mild compression, and atP= 7.94 GPa, the Ag−Ag distance matches the value ofmetallic silver. On the other hand, no cuprophilic interaction is activated even bycompression up to 8 GPa, and Cu−Cu distances remain outside the van der Waalsspheres.