The dinitrogen analogue phosphorus mononitride is the first phosphorus containing compound detected in the interstellar medium in 1987. On Earth, PN was first accidentally prepared in a discharge through air in a tube, which previously had been used with phosphorus by Herzberg et al. in 1933 and spectroscopically characterized based on 24 rotational bands. Previously Moldenhauer already reported the formation of a remarkably stable yellow powder in a discharge through nitrogen and phosphorus with a stoichiometry of equal amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen. Alternatively, monomeric PN is formed in the high-vacuum flash pyrolysis of P3N5 at 800-900 °C, isolated in solid krypton at 10 K, and characterized based on its single infrared fundamental at 1323 cm -1 . In the absence of a noble gas matrix PN polymerizes to [PN]n and aromatic cyclotriphosphazene (PN)3, which also forms in electron irradiation experiments of ammonia (NH3) and phosphine (PH3) containing ices at cryogenic temperatures. The cyclotriphosphazene molecule undergoes a photochemically induced rearrangement to its Dewar benzene-type valence isomer. Under matrix isolation conditions PN was reported to interact with different metal atoms, including Cu, Ag, Au, Co, Ni and Pd. Ab initio computations indicate that PN is thermodynamically unstable and formation of N2 and diphosphorus (P2) is exergonic. Klapötke et al. described with P3N21 the smallest structurally characterized discrete binary PN molecule so far. The stabilization and activation of dipnictogens, e.g., N2, 11 P2, and just recently PN is still an ongoing endeavor in inorganic chemistry. Due to its high reactivity and the absence of a suitable molecular precursor for a mild release of PN, molecules containing embedded phosphorus mononitride units have been synthesized and stabilized in various fashions, e.g., N-heterocyclic carbenes, anthracene (APNA), or cyclo-tetraphosphazene. Niecke and coworkers reported with iminophosphenium tetrachloroaluminate (1, Figure top left) the first stable compound with a PN triple bond of 1.475 (8) Å according to a crystallographic study. The Bertrand group reported the stabilization of PN by two N-heterocyclic carbenes (2, Figure top middle). However, the central P-N interatomic distance was reported in the crystal structure as 1.709(2) Å, which is significantly longer than the triple bond in the gaseous PN molecule determined by microwave spectroscopy to be 1.49086(2) Å. Hence, a better description for the compound would be R'R''C=P-N=CR2 instead of R'R''C→P≡N←CR2. A similar result was observed by doubly anthracene stabilized PN in APNP (Figure top right). However, from none of these PN-containing complexes could free molecular PN be released, yet. Even the isolation of metal complexes with a PN ligand seems to be challenging because of rapid oligomerization reactions as demonstrated by the phosphinidene reactivity of the transient PNV(N[ t Bu]Ar)3 (Ar = 3,5-Me2C6H3) complex. , bottom). The mononuclear PN complex was released in a reaction of t BuNC with a bridging PN heterodinuclear complex that was initially synthesized in a reductive coupling of iron(IV) nitride and molybdenum(VI) phosphide complexes. 14 Here we report the synthesis of an anthracene based molecular precursor for the release of molecular PN under standard laboratory conditions.