While crystals were formed of Driesss diphosphagermylene, the X-ray structure diphosphagermylene could not be analyzed due to disordering. It has been suggested that the three lone pairs in Driesss diphosphagermylene system are composed of Ge (4s, 4p) and P (3s, 3p) valence orbitals. Driess calculated (MP2/DZ+POL//RHF/DZ+ZPE) the reaction profile for the isomerization of  E(PH) (E = Si, Ge, Sn, Pb) from a σ-only, carbene-like system to a tautomer containing trivalent E with a π bond between E and phosphorus. The authors observed that the carbene-like form is preferred over its tautomer for silicon, germanium, tin, and lead analogues.