Clusters Polyhedral boranes

Cluster-expansion and cluster-degradation reactions are a feature of many polyhedral borane species. Examples of cluster-expansion are " ... 

As a result of the systematic application of coordination-chemistry principles, dozens of previously unsuspected stnicture types have been synthesized in which polyhedral boranes or their anions can be considered to act as ligands which donate electron density to metal centres, thereby forming novel metallaboranc elusters, ". Some 40 metals have been found to act as acceptors in this way (see also p. 178). The ideas have been particularly helpful m emphasizing the close interconnection between several previously separated branches of chemistry, notably boron hydride clu.ster chemistry, metallaboranc and metallacarbaborane chemistry (pp. 189-95). organometallic chemistry and metal-metal cluster chemistry. All are now seen to be parts of a coherent whole. 

L Monomeric and Polymeric Organic Analogs of Boron Cluster Systems The polyhedral clusters of boranes and carboranes are groups of cluster systems that are present ubiquitously in organoboron polymers. As in the case with the... 

Heteroatom Cluster Compounds Incorporating Polyhedral Boranes as Ligands... 

This mechanism bears a close relationship to the polymerization of polyhedral boranes. Certainly there is clear evidence for the formation of Fe(CO)4 from Fe(CO)5. The production of Fe2(CO)9 from Fe(CO)5 is catalyzed by light, but further polymerization of Fe2(CO)9 to Fe3CO)I2 is not observed under these conditions. For the related osmium systems, there is some evidence for the formation of 082(00)9 from Os(CO)5, but irradiation of Os3(CO)J2 does not produce higher clusters although in the presence of molecules such as CO or CjH L) the compounds... 

The polyhedral boranes and carboranes discussed above may be regarded as boron clusters in which the single external orbital of each vertex atom helps to bind an external hydrogen or other monovalent atom or group. Post-transition main group elements are known to form clusters without external ligands bound to the vertex atoms. Such species are called bare metal clusters for convenience. Anionic bare metal clusters were first observed by Zintl and co-workers in the 1930s [2-5], The first evidence for anionic clusters of post-transition metals such as tin, lead, antimony, and bismuth was obtained by potentiometric titrations with alkali metals in liquid ammonia. Consequently, such anionic post-transition metal clusters are often called Zintl phases. 

Rules for counting the number of skeletal electrons provided by each vertex atom need to be established in order to determine the number of skeletal electrons in polygonal and polyhedral clusters of the post-transition elements. The rules discussed above for polyhedral boranes can be adapted to bare post-transition metal vertices as follows ... 

Another very useful rule for classifying the structures of polyboranes and hetero-boranes as well as many metal boron cluster compounds and their derivatives has been developed by Rudolph, Williams, Mingos and Wade (see Chapter 1.1.2) [4]. Today these are generally termed the Wade rules. They can be derived from the structures and electronic requirements of closed polyhedral boranes, such as an octahedron or an icosahedron, which are present in the anions B6H62 and B,2 H, 22. Since there are only exopolyhedral B-H bonds the number of electron... 

In contrast to the polyhedral boranes B H +m there exist a number of neutral boron duster molecules B X (X = Cl, Br, I, NR2, R) all of them having closed deltahedral structures in spite of the fact that the number of bonding electron pairs is only n. For this reason these homonudear cluster compounds of boron are called hypercloso polyboranes. However, there also exist anions of type B X 2 which fit Wade s rules. 

An essential feature of the Wade-Mingos rules [13-16] is the partitioning of the valence electrons of the cluster atoms into skeletal electrons and external electrons. For polyhedral boranes, the external electrons are used to form bonds to external groups, such as hydrogen atoms in the prototypical borane dianions However, for bare post-transition element clusters, these external electrons formally correspond to nonbonding electron pairs. Subsequent experimental and theoretical... 

The efforts to rationalize the formulas and structures of Zintl ions and related species predated extensive definitive structural information on anionic post-transition metal clusters obtained by Corbett and his group in the 1970s [8, 9]. After enough such structural information on the bare post-transition metal clusters became available, the resemblance of their polyhedra to the known polyhedral boranes became apparent. For this reason, the simple Zintl-Klemm concept has been largely superseded by newer, more advanced descriptions of chemical bonding in such clusters, initially those applied to the polyhedral boranes. 

The Relationship of Zintl Ions to Polyhedral Boranes The Wade-Mingos Rules and the Aromaticity of Clusters... 

The next development in the understanding of structure and bonding in the Zintl ions recognized their relationship to the polyhedral boranes and the isoelectronic carboranes. Then the Wade-Mingos rules [13-16], which were developed to understand the structure and bonding in polyhedral boranes, could be extended to isovalent Zintl ions and related post-transition element clusters. 

The boron hydrides, including the polyhedral boranes, heteroboranes, and their metaUa derivatives, encompass an amazingly diverse area of chemistry. This class contains the most extensive array of structurally characterized cluster compounds known. Included here are many novel clusters possessing idealized molecular geometries ranging over every point group symmetry from identity (C[) to icosahedral (I[). Because boron hydride clusters may be considered in some respects to be progenitorial models of metal clusters, their development has provided a framework for the development of cluster chemistry in... 

Another class of molecules that will be discussed contains cluster compounds such as the polyhedral borane anions, B H -", and some metal containing species such as the metal carbonyl clusters. 

Much of the current literature on metal atom cluster species employs bonding concepts that are derived from MO treatment of the polyhedral borane anions, We thus begin by discussing these species, of which the most important examples are shown in Figure 8.15. We shall deal with the BaHg" ion in detail to illustrate the general approach to these systems. 

The structures and skeletal bond valences of Oss(CO)i6 and B5H52- are similar as a pair, as are also Fe5C(CO)is and B5H9. But the bonding types in the boranes and the metal clusters are not the same. Since every B atom in a polyhedral borane has three AO s for bonding of the BM skeleton, any vertex more than three-connected must involve multicenter bonds. In the transition-metal skeleton, the Mm atoms form either 2c-2e single bonds or 3c-2e multicenter bonds. 

Boranes are recognized as clusters of boron atoms which represent triangularfaced polyhedra. It was Williams62 in 1970 who pointed out in a classic paper that the structures of all boranes are derived from those of the closed polyhedral borane anions, or carboranes, with vertices ranging from 5 to 12. These regular polyhedra are shown in Fig. 5 and represent the structures of the closo-boranes (or carboranes) from which all other borane structures are derived. 

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