Mono-and bis(guanidine) ligands stabilise bis-μ-oxido dicopper(III) complexes. Here, the formation of these complexes has been investigated in detail by means of lowtemperature stopped-flow techniques for the monoguanidine 2-[3-(dimethylamino)propyl]-1,1,3,3-tetramethylguanidine (TMGdmap) and the related bis(guanidine) 1,3-bis(N,N,N′,N′-tetramethylguanidino)propane (btmgp). Low-temperature IR studies in solution support the formation of bis-μ-oxido complexes. For both systems, no intermediates on the pathways to the bis-μ-oxido complexes could be detected; this has been explained through extensive DFT calculations. In the first step,

No abstract

In contrast to dinuclear (disulfido)copper complexes related trisulfido compounds have not been reported so far.Here we describe two new complexes of this type, [Cu 2 (tmpa) 2 S 3 ](SbF 6 ) 2 {tmpa = tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amine} and [Cu 2 (tet b) 2 S 3 ](OTf ) 2 (tet b = rac-5,5,7,12,12,14-hexamethyl-1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane), that have been investigated and could be structurally characterized. Furthermore, the reac- [a]

Invited for the cover of this issue are the groups of Siegfried Schindler and Doreen Mollenhauer from the Justus-Liebig University Gießen, Germany. The cover image shows the reaction of a copper(I) complex with elemental sulfur.

The cover picture shows elemental sulfur in the crater of the volcano on the Vulcano island, Italy (photograph courtesy of Christopher Schmidt, Marburg). Sulfur is one of the few elements that can be found in its elemental form in nature. It is quite likely that sulfur was a key element for the evolution of life. A macrocylic copper(I) complex with the ligand tet b (= rac‐5,5,7,12,12,14‐hexamethyl‐1,4,8,11‐tetraazacyclotetradecane) can easily react with elemental sulfur to form a dinuclear product complex with a bridging trisulfido ligand. Details are discussed in the article by S. Schindler et al. on http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejic.201600614/abstract. For more on the story behind the cover research, see the http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejic.201600831/full.