Names | |
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IUPAC name Diborane(6) | |
Identifiers | |
3D model (JSmol) | |
ChEBI | |
ChemSpider | |
ECHA InfoCard | 100.039.021 |
EC Number |
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PubChem CID | |
RTECS number |
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UNII | |
UN number | 1911 |
CompTox Dashboard (EPA) | |
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Properties | |
B2H6 | |
Molar mass | 27.67 g·mol−1 |
Appearance | Colorless gas |
Odor | repulsive and sweet |
Density | 1.131 g/L [1] |
Melting point | −164.85 °C (−264.73 °F; 108.30 K) [1] |
Boiling point | −92.49 °C (−134.48 °F; 180.66 K) [1] |
Reacts [2] | |
Solubility in other solvents | Diglyme and Diethyl Ether, [3] |
Vapor pressure | 39.5 atm (16.6 °C) [2] |
Structure | |
Tetrahedral (for boron) | |
see text | |
0 D | |
Thermochemistry | |
Heat capacity (C) | 56.7 J/(mol·K) [4] |
Std molar entropy (S⦵298) | 232.1 J/(mol·K) [4] |
Std enthalpy of formation (ΔfH⦵298) | 36.4 kJ/mol [4] |
Hazards | |
Occupational safety and health (OHS/OSH): | |
Main hazards | toxic, highly flammable, reacts with water |
GHS labelling: | |
Danger | |
H220, H314, H330, H370, H372 | |
P210, P260, P264, P270, P271, P280, P284, P301+P330+P331, P303+P361+P353, P304+P340, P305+P351+P338, P307+P311, P310, P314, P320, P321, P363, P377, P381, P403, P403+P233, P405, P410+P403, P501 | |
NFPA 704 (fire diamond) | |
38 °C (100 °F; 311 K) | |
Explosive limits | 0.8–88% [2] |
Lethal dose or concentration (LD, LC): | |
LC50 (median concentration) | 40 ppm (rat, 4 h) 29 ppm (mouse, 4 h) 40–80 ppm (rat, 4 h) 159–181 ppm (rat, 15 min) [6] |
LCLo (lowest published) | 125 ppm (dog, 2 h) 50 ppm (hamster, 8 h) [6] |
NIOSH (US health exposure limits): | |
PEL (Permissible) | TWA 0.1 ppm (0.1 mg/m3) [2] |
REL (Recommended) | TWA 0.1 ppm (0.1 mg/m3) [2] |
IDLH (Immediate danger) | 15 ppm [2] |
Safety data sheet (SDS) | ICSC 0432 |
Related compounds | |
Related boron compounds | Decaborane BF3 |
Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa). |
Diborane(6), commonly known as diborane, is the chemical compound with the formula B2H6. It is a highly toxic, colorless, and pyrophoric gas with a repulsively sweet odor. Given its simple formula, borane is a fundamental boron compound. It has attracted wide attention for its electronic structure. Several of its derivatives are useful reagents.
The structure of diborane has D2h symmetry. Four hydrides are terminal, while two bridge between the boron centers. The lengths of the B–Hbridge bonds and the B–Hterminal bonds are 1.33 and 1.19 Å respectively. This difference in bond lengths reflects the difference in their strengths, the B–Hbridge bonds being relatively weaker. The weakness of the B–Hbridge compared to B–Hterminal bonds is indicated by their vibrational signatures in the infrared spectrum, being ≈2100 and 2500 cm−1 respectively. [7]
The model determined by molecular orbital theory describes the bonds between boron and the terminal hydrogen atoms as conventional 2-center 2-electron covalent bonds. The bonding between the boron atoms and the bridging hydrogen atoms is, however, different from that in molecules such as hydrocarbons. Each boron uses two electrons in bonding to the terminal hydrogen atoms and has one valence electron remaining for additional bonding. The bridging hydrogen atoms provide one electron each. The B2H2 ring is held together by four electrons forming two 3-center 2-electron bonds. This type of bond is sometimes called a "banana bond".
B2H6 is isoelectronic with C2H62+, which would arise from the diprotonation of the planar molecule ethylene. [8] Diborane is one of many compounds with such unusual bonding. [9]
Of the other elements in group IIIA, gallium is known to form a similar compound digallane, Ga2H6. Aluminium forms a polymeric hydride, (AlH3)n; although unstable, Al2H6 has been isolated in solid hydrogen and is isostructural with diborane. [10]
Extensive studies of diborane have led to the development of multiple synthesis routes. Most preparations entail reactions of hydride donors with boron halides or alkoxides. The industrial synthesis of diborane involves the reduction of BF3 by sodium hydride (NaH), lithium hydride (LiH) or lithium aluminium hydride (LiAlH4): [11]
Lithium hydride used for this purpose must be very finely powdered to avoid the formation of a passivating lithium tetrafluoroborate layer on the reactant. Alternatively, a small amount of diborane product can be added to form lithium borohydride, which will react with the BF3 to produce more diborane, making the reaction autocatalytic. [12]
Two laboratory methods start from boron trichloride with lithium aluminium hydride or from boron trifluoride ether solution with sodium borohydride. Both methods result in as much as 30% yield:
When heated with NaBH4, tin(II) chloride is reduced to elemental tin, forming diborane in the process:
Older methods entail the direct reaction of borohydride salts with a non-oxidizing acid, such as phosphoric acid or dilute sulfuric acid.
Similarly, oxidation of borohydride salts has been demonstrated and remains convenient for small-scale preparations. For example, using iodine as an oxidizer: [13]
Another small-scale synthesis uses potassium borohydride and phosphoric acid as starting materials. [14]
Diborane is a highly reactive and versatile reagent. [16]
As a pyrophoric substance, diborane reacts exothermically with oxygen to form boron trioxide and water:
Diborane reacts violently with water to form hydrogen and boric acid:
Diborane also reacts with alcohols similarly. Methanol for example give hydrogen and trimethylborate: [17]
One dominating reaction pattern involves formation of adducts with Lewis bases. Often such initial adducts proceed rapidly to give other products. For example, borane-tetrahydrofuran, which often behaves equivalently to diborane, degrades to borate esters. Its adduct with dimethyl sulfide is an important reagent in organic synthesis.
With ammonia diborane forms the diammoniate of diborane, DADB with small quantities of ammonia borane as byproduct. The ratio depends on the conditions.
In the hydroboration reaction, diborane also reacts readily with alkenes to form trialkylboranes. This reaction pattern is rather general and the resulting alkyl borates can be readily derivatized, e.g. to alcohols. Although early work on hydroboration relied on diborane, it has been replaced by borane dimethylsulfide, which is more safely handled.
Pyrolysis of diborane gives hydrogen and diverse boron hydride clusters. For example, pentaborane was first prepared by pyrolysis of diborane at about 200 °C. [18] [19] Although this pyrolysis route is rarely employed, it ushered in a large research theme of borane cluster chemistry.
Treating diborane with sodium amalgam gives NaBH4 and Na[B3H8] [17] When diborane is treated with lithium hydride in diethyl ether, lithium borohydride is formed: [17]
Diborane reacts with anhydrous hydrogen chloride or hydrogen bromide gas to give a boron halohydride: [17]
Treating diborane with carbon monoxide at 470 K and 20 bar gives H3BCO. [17]
Diborane and its variants are central organic synthesis reagents for hydroboration. Alkenes add across the B–H bonds to give trialkylboranes, which can be further elaborated. [20] Diborane is used as a reducing agent roughly complementary to the reactivity of lithium aluminium hydride. The compound readily reduces carboxylic acids to the corresponding alcohols, whereas ketones react only sluggishly.
Diborane was first synthesised in the 19th century by hydrolysis of metal borides, but it was never analysed. From 1912 to 1936, Alfred Stock, the major pioneer in the chemistry of boron hydrides, undertook his research that led to the methods for the synthesis and handling of the highly reactive, volatile, and often toxic boron hydrides. He proposed the first ethane-like structure of diborane. [21] Electron diffraction measurements by S. H. Bauer initially appeared to support his proposed structure. [22] [23]
Because of a personal communication with L. Pauling (who supported the ethane-like structure), H. I. Schlessinger and A. B. Burg did not specifically discuss 3-center 2-electron bonding in their then classic review in the early 1940s. [24] The review does, however, discuss the bridged D2h structure in some depth: "It is to be recognized that this formulation easily accounts for many of the chemical properties of diborane..."
In 1943, H. Christopher Longuet-Higgins, while still an undergraduate at Oxford, was the first to explain the structure and bonding of the boron hydrides. The article reporting the work, written with his tutor R. P. Bell, [25] also reviews the history of the subject beginning with the work of Dilthey. [26] Shortly afterwards, the theoretical work of Longuet-Higgins was confirmed in an infrared study of diborane by Price. [27] The structure was re-confirmed by electron-diffraction measurement in 1951 by K. Hedberg and V. Schomaker, with the confirmation of the structure shown in the schemes on this page. [28]
William Nunn Lipscomb Jr. further confirmed the molecular structure of boranes using X-ray crystallography in the 1950s and developed theories to explain their bonding. Later, he applied the same methods to related problems, including the structure of carboranes, on which he directed the research of future 1981 Nobel Prize winner Roald Hoffmann. The 1976 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Lipscomb "for his studies on the structure of boranes illuminating problems of chemical bonding". [29]
Traditionally, diborane has often been described as electron-deficient, because the 12 valence electrons can only form 6 conventional 2-centre 2-electron bonds, which are insufficient to join all 8 atoms. [30] [31] However, the more correct description using 3-centre bonds shows that diborane is really electron-precise, since there are just enough valence electrons to fill the 6 bonding molecular orbitals. [32] Nevertheless, some leading textbooks still use the term "electron-deficient". [33]
Because of the exothermicity of its reaction with oxygen, diborane has been tested as a rocket propellant. [34] Complete combustion is strongly exothermic. However, combustion is not complete in the rocket engine, as some boron monoxide, B2O, is produced. This conversion mirrors the incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons, to produce carbon monoxide (CO). Diborane also proved difficult to handle. [35] [36] [37]
Diborane has been investigated as a precursor to metal boride films [38] and for the p-doping of silicon semiconductors. [39]
Diborane is a pyrophoric gas. Commercially available adducts are typically used instead, at least for applications in organic chemistry. These adducts include borane-tetrahydrofuran (borane-THF) and borane-dimethylsulfide. [16] The toxic effects of diborane are mitigated because the compound is so unstable in air. The toxicity toward laboratory rats has been investigated. [40]
In chemistry, a hydride is formally the anion of hydrogen (H−), a hydrogen atom with two electrons. In modern usage, this is typically only used for ionic bonds, but it is sometimes (and more frequently in the past) been applied to all compounds containing covalently bound H atoms. In this broad and potentially archaic sense, water (H2O) is a hydride of oxygen, ammonia is a hydride of nitrogen, etc. In covalent compounds, it implies hydrogen is attached to a less electronegative element. In such cases, the H centre has nucleophilic character, which contrasts with the protic character of acids. The hydride anion is very rarely observed.
Boron hydride clusters are compounds with the formula BxHy or related anions, where x ≥ 3. Many such cluster compounds are known. Common examples are those with 5, 10, and 12 boron atoms. Although they have few practical applications, the borane hydride clusters exhibit structures and bonding that differs strongly from the patterns seen in hydrocarbons. Hybrids of boranes and hydrocarbons, the carboranes are also well developed.
Herbert Charles Brown was an American chemist and recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work with organoboranes.
Sodium borohydride, also known as sodium tetrahydridoborate and sodium tetrahydroborate, is an inorganic compound with the formula NaBH4. It is a white crystalline solid, usually encountered as an aqueous basic solution. Sodium borohydride is a reducing agent that finds application in papermaking and dye industries. It is also used as a reagent in organic synthesis.
Organoboron chemistry or organoborane chemistry studies organoboron compounds, also called organoboranes. These chemical compounds combine boron and carbon; typically, they are organic derivatives of borane (BH3), as in the trialkyl boranes.
Borazine, also known as borazole, is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula B3H6N3. In this cyclic compound, the three BH units and three NH units alternate. The compound is isoelectronic and isostructural with benzene. For this reason borazine is sometimes referred to as “inorganic benzene”. Like benzene, borazine is a colourless liquid with an aromatic odor.
Ammonia borane, also called borazane, is the chemical compound with the formula H3NBH3. The colourless or white solid is the simplest molecular boron-nitrogen-hydride compound. It has attracted attention as a source of hydrogen fuel, but is otherwise primarily of academic interest.
Boron compounds are compounds containing the element boron. In the most familiar compounds, boron has the formal oxidation state +3. These include oxides, sulfides, nitrides, and halides.
Borohydride refers to the anion [BH4]−, which is also called tetrahydridoborate, and its salts. Borohydride or hydroborate is also the term used for compounds containing [BH4−nXn]−, where n is an integer from 0 to 3, for example cyanoborohydride or cyanotrihydroborate [BH3(CN)]− and triethylborohydride or triethylhydroborate [BH(CH2CH3)3]−. Borohydrides find wide use as reducing agents in organic synthesis. The most important borohydrides are lithium borohydride and sodium borohydride, but other salts are well known. Tetrahydroborates are also of academic and industrial interest in inorganic chemistry.
Lithium borohydride (LiBH4) is a borohydride and known in organic synthesis as a reducing agent for esters. Although less common than the related sodium borohydride, the lithium salt offers some advantages, being a stronger reducing agent and highly soluble in ethers, whilst remaining safer to handle than lithium aluminium hydride.
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.
Borane dimethylsulfide (BMS) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula BH3·S(CH3)2. It is an adduct between borane molecule and dimethyl sulfide molecule. It is a complexed borane reagent that is used for hydroborations and reductions. The advantages of BMS over other borane reagents, such as borane-tetrahydrofuran, are its increased stability and higher solubility. BMS is commercially available at much higher concentrations than its tetrahydrofuran counterpart and does not require sodium borohydride as a stabilizer, which could result in undesired side reactions. In contrast, BH3·THF requires sodium borohydride to inhibit reduction of THF to tributyl borate. BMS is soluble in most aprotic solvents.
Borane, also known as borine, is an unstable and highly reactive molecule with the chemical formula BH
3. The preparation of borane carbonyl, BH3(CO), played an important role in exploring the chemistry of boranes, as it indicated the likely existence of the borane molecule. However, the molecular species BH3 is a very strong Lewis acid. Consequently, it is highly reactive and can only be observed directly as a continuously produced, transitory, product in a flow system or from the reaction of laser ablated atomic boron with hydrogen. It normally dimerizes to diborane in the absence of other chemicals.
1,2-Dimethyldiborane is an organoboron compound with the formula [(CH3)BH2]2. Structurally, it is related to diborane, but with methyl groups replacing terminal hydrides on each boron. It is the dimer of methylborane, CH3BH2, the simplest alkylborane. 1,2-Dimethyldiborane can exist in a cis- and a trans arrangement. 1,2-Dimethyldiborane is an easily condensed, colorless gas that ignites spontaneously in air.
Dimethylborane, (CH3)2BH is the simplest dialkylborane, consisting of a methyl group substituted for a hydrogen in borane. As for other boranes it normally exists in the form of a dimer called tetramethyldiborane or tetramethylbisborane or TMDB ((CH3)2BH)2. Other combinations of methylation occur on diborane, including monomethyldiborane, trimethyldiborane, 1,2-dimethylborane, 1,1-dimethylborane and trimethylborane. At room temperature the substance is at equilibrium between these forms. The methylboranes were first prepared by H. I. Schlesinger and A. O. Walker in the 1930s.
Trimethyldiborane, (CH3)3B2H3 is a molecule containing boron carbon and hydrogen. It is an alkylborane, consisting of three methyl group substituted for a hydrogen in diborane. It can be considered a mixed dimer: (CH3)2BH2BH(CH3) or dimethylborane and methylborane. called 1,2-dimethyldiborane. Other combinations of methylation occur on diborane, including monomethyldiborane, 1,2-dimethyldiborane, tetramethyldiborane, 1,1-dimethylborane and trimethylborane. At room temperature the substance is at equilibrium between these forms, so it is difficult to keep it pure. The methylboranes were first prepared by H. I. Schlesinger and A. O. Walker in the 1930s.
Methyldiborane, CH3B2H5, or monomethyldiborane is the simplest of alkyldiboranes, consisting of a methyl group substituted for a hydrogen in diborane. As with other boranes it exists in the form of a dimer with a twin hydrogen bridge that uses three-center two-electron bonding between the two boron atoms, and can be imagined as methyl borane (CH3BH2) bound to borane (BH3). Other combinations of methylation occur on diborane, including 1,1-dimethylborane, 1,2-dimethyldiborane, trimethyldiborane, tetramethyldiborane, and trimethylborane (which is not a dimer). At room temperature the substance is at equilibrium between these molecules.
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.
1,1-Dimethyldiborane is the organoboron compound with the formula (CH3)2B(μ-H)2BH2. A pair of related 1,2-dimethyldiboranes are also known. It is a colorless gas that ignites in air.
A borane is a compound with the formula BRxHy although examples include multi-boron derivatives. A large family of boron hydride clusters is also known. In addition to some applications in organic chemistry, the boranes have attracted much attention as they exhibit structures and bonding that differs strongly from the patterns seen in hydrocarbons. Hybrids of boranes and hydrocarbons, the carboranes, are also a well developed class of compounds.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)One of the simple consequences of these studies was that electron deficient molecules, defined as having more valence orbitals than electrons, are not really electron deficient.
An electron-deficient species possesses fewer valence electrons than are required for a localized bonding scheme.
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