Boron oxygen/water vapor

The gas phase polymerization of diisobutylene with boron fluoride also did not occur unless a third component was present. The addition of water or acetone caused the mixture to react rapidly, the boron fluoride combining instantaneously with the vapor of the third component in approximately equimolecular quantities. Certain substances, oxygen, hydrogen sulfide, and hydrogen chloride, did not produce a rapid polymerization of diisobutylene these substances did not combine with the boron fluoride. In each of these cases, the final addition of water to the nonreacting mixture resulted in rapid polymerization. Ammonia formed an addition compound with the boron fluoride in approximately equimolecular quantities, but did not bring about the polymerization of the diisobutylene until water vapor was added, after which rapid reaction occurred (Evans and Weinberger, 85). 

Boron suboxides have boron oxygen mole ratios equal to or greater than one. These compounds range from molecular species to refractory solid-state materials. Monomeric vapor-phase BO and B2O2 have been studied by spectroscopic techniques. In addition to these rather unstable high-temperature species, several forms of solid noncrystalline boron suboxides have been reported. A water-soluble low-temperature form is obtained by the vacuum dehydration of tetrahydroxydiborane at 220°C (equation 5). At 500 °C, this form converts to a light brown modification that has also been obtained by reactions of boric oxide with elemental boron, boron carbide, or carbon at high temperatures (>1250 °C). 

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