Bis-[3]Ferrocenophanes with Central >E-E'< Bonds (E, E'=P, SiH): Preparation, Properties, and Thermal Activation.

Invited for this month's cover picture are the groups of Professors Rudolf Pietschnig at the University of Kassel, Professor Dietrich Gudat at the University of Stuttgart and Professor László Nyulászi at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. The cover picture shows the thermally induced homolytic cleavage of the central P-P bond in a phosphorus-rich bis-ferrocenophane furnishing P-centered radicals (as evidenced by the computed spin-density highlighted in blue). The central P6 unit in the title compound is a structural analog of the connecting unit in Hittorf's violet phosphorus, which links the orthogonally arranged tubular entities. A portrait of the German physicist Johann Wilhelm Hittorf is included. Read the full text of their Full Paper at 10.1002/open.201900182.