Anions with 10 or 12 Vertices

Submitted by ANDREAS FRANKEN and JOHN D. KENNEDY Checked by JUDE CLAPPER and LARRY G. SNEDDON  

Monocarbaborane cluster chemistry is sparsely investigated compared to its flanking fields of binary boron hydride cluster chemistry and dicarbaborane cluster chemistry. Dicarbaborane compounds can be synthesized relatively easily by addition of alkynes to boron hydrides such as decaborane, but there are no simple routes to monocarbaborane compounds. Traditionally, the principal methods involve removal of one carbon atom from dicarbaboranes, or addition of cyanide or organic nitriles to borane clusters to give C-aminated monocarbaboranes, which can subsequently be deaminated.  

Inorganic Syntheses, Volume 36, First Edition. Edited by Gregory S. Girolami and Alfred P. Satlelberger. 

The original recipe submitted by the authors called for just over 1 equiv of I2 per carborane unit, but since the procedure was checked, independent workers have reported that the reaction proceeds more reliably if more than 2 equiv are added the above recipe includes this modification. 

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In addition to the areas already discussed in this article and, in particular, development of applications in biological, medicinal, and materials chemistry, several aspects are of current research interest. Section 4.10 introduced the steadily expanding area of single-cage metallacarbaborane clusters with more than 12 vertices. The role of carbaboranes and metallacarbaboranes within supramolecular chemistry has been actively investigated in the last decade. One of the best-explored areas is that of multicluster mercuracarbaboranes, which act as macrocyclic Lewis acidic hosts for electron-rich (anionic or neutral) guests. ... 

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