Cover Picture: Palladium Complexes with Chiral Diphospholane Ligands: Comparative Catalytic Properties and Analysis of (η 3 ‐Allyl)palladium Species (Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 20/2004)

The cover picture shows the low-temperature 31P NMR signals and simplified 3D representations of exo and endo isomers of an (η3-1,3-diphenylallyl)palladium(II) complex in which the metal center is coordinated by a chiral xanthene-derived diphospholane ligand. Such complexes are intermediates in palladium-catalyzed allylic substitution, and their structures determined by 2D NMR spectroscopy allow for the interpretation of the enantioselectivities of the catalytic process in terms of preferential rotation of the allyl group. Key methyl groups of the chiral ligand that govern this rotation are represented by yellow spheres in the background. Details on these complexes and others and on asymmetric catalysis can be found in the article by J. A. Osborn, L. Barloy et al. on p. 3987 ff. The authors are indebted to Bernard Lafleuriel (CURRI-Visu) for his help concerning the artwork of the cover picture.