Cover Picture: Interpenetrating Polar and Nonpolar Sublattices in Intermetallics: The NaCd2 Structure (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 12/2007)
Abstract
The sun and the moon are not quite equal partners; the two clusters shown in the cover picture are more so. They rise and set in several incredibly complex intermetallic phases, such as NaCd2. As explained by R. Hoffmann and co-workers in their Review on page 1958 ff., an electronic Aufbau based on these clusters generates the full NaCd2 structure in all its glory: the clusters build two interpenetrating networks that strive for the extremes of polarity and nonpolarity. The alchemical image, drawn by Robert Vaughn, is from Elias Ashmole's Theatricum Chemicum Britannicum.
