Boron nitride is a thermally and chemically resistant refractory compound of boron and nitrogen with the chemical formula BN. It exists in various crystalline forms that are isoelectronic to a similarly structured carbon lattice. The hexagonal form corresponding to graphite is the most stable and soft among BN polymorphs, and is therefore used as a lubricant and an additive to cosmetic products. The cubic variety analogous to diamond is called c-BN; it is softer than diamond, but its thermal and chemical stability is superior. The rare wurtzite BN modification is similar to lonsdaleite but slightly softer than the cubic form.
Boron trioxide or diboron trioxide is the oxide of boron with the formula B2O3. It is a colorless transparent solid, almost always glassy (amorphous), which can be crystallized only with great difficulty. It is also called boric oxide or boria. It has many important industrial applications, chiefly in ceramics as a flux for glazes and enamels and in the production of glasses.
Chromium hexacarbonyl is a chromium(0) organometallic compound with the formula Cr(CO)6. It is a homoleptic complex, which means that all the ligands are identical. It is a colorless crystalline air-stable solid, with a high vapor pressure.
Borirenes are a unique class of three-membered heterocyclic compounds characterized by an unsaturated boron atom within their ring structure. First computationally predicted by John Pople and Paul von Rague Schleyer in 1981, the simplest borirene, (CH)2BH, is isoelectronic with the cyclopropenium cation and exhibits Hückel aromaticity. Borirenes undergo ring-opening reactions with polar reagents and form Lewis adducts, due to the significant ring strain in its three-membered structure and the presence of an empty p orbital on the boron atom. The balance of these two properties leads to unique properties as a ligand for transition metals, in addition to observation of photochemical rearrangement and ring expansion. While borirenes were first discovered in the 1980s, new derivatives such as benzoborirenes have led to renewed interest in the field, with their potential applications yet to be fully explored.
Boron suboxide (chemical formula B6O) is a solid compound with a structure built of eight icosahedra at the apexes of the rhombohedral unit cell. Each icosahedron is composed of twelve boron atoms. Two oxygen atoms are located in the interstices along the [111] rhombohedral direction. Due to its short interatomic bond lengths and strongly covalent character, B6O displays a range of outstanding physical and chemical properties such as great hardness (close to that of rhenium diboride and boron nitride), low mass density, high thermal conductivity, high chemical inertness, and excellent wear resistance.
Boroxine is a 6-membered heterocyclic compound composed of alternating oxygen and singly-hydrogenated boron atoms. Boroxine derivatives such as trimethylboroxine and triphenylboroxine also make up a broader class of compounds called boroxines. These compounds are solids that are usually in equilibrium with their respective boronic acids at room temperature. Beside being used in theoretical studies, boroxine is primarily used in the production of optics.
Sodium metaborate is a chemical compound of sodium, boron, and oxygen with formula NaBO2. However, the metaborate ion is trimeric in the anhydrous solid, therefore a more correct formula is Na3B3O6 or (Na+)3[B3O6]3−. The formula can be written also as Na2O·B2O3 to highlight the relation to the main oxides of sodium and boron. The name is also applied to several hydrates whose formulas can be written NaBO2·nH2O for various values of n.
Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are a class of porous polymers that form two- or three-dimensional structures through reactions between organic precursors resulting in strong, covalent bonds to afford porous, stable, and crystalline materials. COFs emerged as a field from the overarching domain of organic materials as researchers optimized both synthetic control and precursor selection. These improvements to coordination chemistry enabled non-porous and amorphous organic materials such as organic polymers to advance into the construction of porous, crystalline materials with rigid structures that granted exceptional material stability in a wide range of solvents and conditions. Through the development of reticular chemistry, precise synthetic control was achieved and resulted in ordered, nano-porous structures with highly preferential structural orientation and properties which could be synergistically enhanced and amplified. With judicious selection of COF secondary building units (SBUs), or precursors, the final structure could be predetermined, and modified with exceptional control enabling fine-tuning of emergent properties. This level of control facilitates the COF material to be designed, synthesized, and utilized in various applications, many times with metrics on scale or surpassing that of the current state-of-the-art approaches.
Boron can be prepared in several crystalline and amorphous forms. Well known crystalline forms are α-rhombohedral (α-R), β-rhombohedral (β-R), and β-tetragonal (β-T). In special circumstances, boron can also be synthesized in the form of its α-tetragonal (α-T) and γ-orthorhombic (γ) allotropes. Two amorphous forms, one a finely divided powder and the other a glassy solid, are also known. Although at least 14 more allotropes have been reported, these other forms are based on tenuous evidence or have not been experimentally confirmed, or are thought to represent mixed allotropes, or boron frameworks stabilized by impurities. Whereas the β-rhombohedral phase is the most stable and the others are metastable, the transformation rate is negligible at room temperature, and thus all five phases can exist at ambient conditions. Amorphous powder boron and polycrystalline β-rhombohedral boron are the most common forms. The latter allotrope is a very hard grey material, about ten percent lighter than aluminium and with a melting point (2080 °C) several hundred degrees higher than that of steel.
Borane is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula BH
3. Because it tends to dimerize or form adducts, borane is very rarely observed. It normally dimerizes to diborane in the absence of other chemicals. It can be observed directly as a continuously produced, transitory, product in a flow system or from the reaction of laser ablated atomic boron with hydrogen.
Borophene is a crystalline atomic monolayer of boron, i.e., it is a two-dimensional allotrope of boron and also known as boron sheet. First predicted by theory in the mid-1990s, different borophene structures were experimentally confirmed in 2015.
A two-dimensional semiconductor is a type of natural semiconductor with thicknesses on the atomic scale. Geim and Novoselov et al. initiated the field in 2004 when they reported a new semiconducting material graphene, a flat monolayer of carbon atoms arranged in a 2D honeycomb lattice. A 2D monolayer semiconductor is significant because it exhibits stronger piezoelectric coupling than traditionally employed bulk forms. This coupling could enable applications. One research focus is on designing nanoelectronic components by the use of graphene as electrical conductor, hexagonal boron nitride as electrical insulator, and a transition metal dichalcogenide as semiconductor.
Boron monofluoride monoxide or oxoboryl fluoride or fluoroxoborane is an unstable inorganic molecular substance with formula FBO. It is also called boron fluoride oxide, fluoro(oxo)borane or fluoro-oxoborane. The molecule is stable at high temperatures, but below 1000 °C condenses to a trimer (BOF)3 called trifluoroboroxin. FBO can be isolated as a triatomic non-metallic molecule in an inert gas matrix, and has been condensed in solid neon and argon. When an attempt is made to condense the gas to a solid in bulk, a polymeric glass is formed, which is deficient in fluoride, and when heated forms a glassy froth like popcorn. Boron fluoride oxide has been studied because of its production in high energy rocket fuels that contain boron and fluorine, and in the form of an oxyfluoride glass. BOF glass is unusual in that it can condense directly from gas.
In organometallic chemistry, the activation of cyclopropanes by transition metals is a research theme with implications for organic synthesis and homogeneous catalysis. Being highly strained, cyclopropanes are prone to oxidative addition to transition metal complexes. The resulting metallacycles are susceptible to a variety of reactions. These reactions are rare examples of C-C bond activation. The rarity of C-C activation processes has been attributed to Steric effects that protect C-C bonds. Furthermore, the directionality of C-C bonds as compared to C-H bonds makes orbital interaction with transition metals less favorable. Thermodynamically, C-C bond activation is more favored than C-H bond activation as the strength of a typical C-C bond is around 90 kcal per mole while the strength of a typical unactivated C-H bond is around 104 kcal per mole.
A borylene is the boron analogue of a carbene. The general structure is R-B: with R an organic moiety and B a boron atom with two unshared electrons. Borylenes are of academic interest in organoboron chemistry. A singlet ground state is predominant with boron having two vacant sp2 orbitals and one doubly occupied one. With just one additional substituent the boron is more electron deficient than the carbon atom in a carbene. For this reason stable borylenes are more uncommon than stable carbenes. Some borylenes such as boron monofluoride (BF) and boron monohydride (BH) the parent compound also known simply as borylene, have been detected in microwave spectroscopy and may exist in stars. Other borylenes exist as reactive intermediates and can only be inferred by chemical trapping.
Borane carbonyl is the inorganic compound with the formula H3BCO. This colorless gas is the adduct of borane and carbon monoxide. It is usually prepared by combining borane-ether complexes and CO. The compound is mainly of theoretical and pedagogical interest.
Boron triazide, also known as triazidoborane, is a thermally unstable compound of boron and nitrogen with a nitrogen content of 92.1 %. Formally, it is the triazido derivative of borane and is a covalent inorganic azide. The high-energy compound, which has the propensity to undergo spontaneous explosive decomposition, was first described in 1954 by Egon Wiberg and Horst Michaud of the University of Munich.
The oxalate phosphates are chemical compounds containing oxalate and phosphate anions. They are also called oxalatophosphates or phosphate oxalates. Some oxalate-phosphate minerals found in bat guano deposits are known. Oxalate phosphates can form metal organic framework compounds.
Corundum is the name for a structure prototype in inorganic solids, derived from the namesake polymorph of aluminum oxide (α-Al2O3). Other compounds, especially among the inorganic solids, exist in corundum structure, either in ambient or other conditions. Corundum structures are associated with metal-insulator transition, ferroelectricity, polar magnetism, and magnetoelectric effects.
Hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks (HOFs) are a class of porous polymers formed by hydrogen bonds among molecular monomer units to afford porosity and structural flexibility. There are diverse hydrogen bonding pair choices that could be used in HOFs construction, including identical or nonidentical hydrogen bonding donors and acceptors. For organic groups acting as hydrogen bonding units, species like carboxylic acid, amide, 2,4-diaminotriazine, and imidazole, etc., are commonly used for the formation of hydrogen bonding interaction. Compared with other organic frameworks, like COF and MOF, the binding force of HOFs is relatively weaker, and the activation of HOFs is more difficult than other frameworks, while the reversibility of hydrogen bonds guarantees a high crystallinity of the materials. Though the stability and pore size expansion of HOFs has potential problems, HOFs still show strong potential for applications in different areas.
