Boranes

In chemistry, boranes comprise a large group of the group 13 hydride compounds with the generic formula of B_xH_y. These compounds do not occur in nature. Many of the boranes readily oxidise on contact with air, some violently. The class is named after the parent chemical called "borane" itself, chemical formula BH₃. This compound is only known to exist as a transient intermediate since it dimerises to form diborane, B₂H₆. The larger boranes all consist of boron clusters that are polyhedral. In addition to the charge-neutral boranes, a large number of anionic boron hydrides are known. The most important boranes are diborane B₂H₆ and two of its pyrolysis products, pentaborane B₅H₉ and decaborane B₁₀H₁₄. The development of the chemistry of boron hydrides led to new experimental techniques and theoretical concepts. Boron hydrides have been studied as potential fuels, for rockets and for automotive uses, but the only commercial applications involve derivatives of borane.

The four series of single-cluster boranes have the following general formulae, where "n" is the number of boron atoms:

There also exists a series of substituted neutral hypercloso-boranes that have the theoretical formulae B_nH_n. Examples include B₁₂(OCH₂Ph)₁₂, a derivative of the unstable hypercloso-B₁₂H₁₂.

The naming of neutral boranes is illustrated by the following examples, where the Greek prefix shows the number of boron atoms and the number of hydrogen atoms is in brackets:

The naming of anions is illustrated by the following, where the hydrogen count is specified first followed by the boron count, and finally the overall charge in brackets:

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