Inside Cover: A Non‐Exploding Alkali Metal Drop on Water: From Blue Solvated Electrons to Bursting Molten Hydroxide (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 42/2016)

Abstract

Hydrated electrons (blue) can been seen by the naked eye despite their very short lifetime in water. Gently placing a drop of water on a sodium/potassium alloy drop leads to a vigorous reaction, but avoids an explosion, as shown by S. Bauerecker, P. Jungwirth, and co-workers in their Communication on page 13019 ff. The snapshot depicts the glass reaction vessel with a shiny alkali metal drop surrounded by a blue, electron-rich region and white hydroxide as the final product of the reaction.