The interest in functional supramolecular systems for the design of innovative materials and technologies, able to fundamentally change the world, is growing at a high pace. The huge array of publications that appeared in recent years in the global literature calls for systematization of the structural trends inherent in the formation of these systems revealed at different molecular platforms and practically useful properties they exhibit. The attention is concentrated on the topics related to functional supramolecular systems that are actively explored in institutes and universities of Russia in the last 10–15 years, such as the chemistry of host–guest complexes, crystal engineering, self-assembly and self-organization in solutions and at interfaces, biomimetics and molecular machines and devices.The bibliography includes 1714 references.

Two new p-tert-butylthiacalix[4]arene derivatives 2 and 3 decorated at the lower rim with four nitrile groups have been prepared and structurally characterised in the crystalline phase. The two ligands, differing by the length of the spacer between the calix moiety and the nitrile group, adopt the 1,3-alternate conformation in the solid state. The ligand 3 bearing four (CH₂)₃CN fragments behaves as a tecton in the presence of silver salts (AgX, X = BF₄, PF₆ or SbF₆) and leads to the formation of analogous 1-D linear coordination networks. The tecton 3 acts as a bischelate unit and bridges consecutive silver cations adopting a tetrahedral coordination geometry. Anions and solvent molecules occupy the free space between networks and exhibit no specific interactions with the cationic architecture.