Lewis acid-bases boron based

Neutral compounds such as boron trifluoride and aluminum chloride form Lewis acid-base complexes by accepting an electron pair from the donor molecule. The same functional groups that act as lone-pair donors to metal cations can form complexes with boron trifluoride, aluminum chloride, and related compounds. 

Borane is very reactive because the boron atom has only six electrons in its valence shell. In tetrahydrofuran solution, BH3 accepts an electron pair from a solvent molecule in a Lewis acid-base reaction to complete its octet and form a stable BH3-THF complex. 

Diborane reacts with ammonia to form an ionic compound (there are no other products). The cation and anion each contain one boron atom, (a) Predict the identity and formula of each ion. (b) Give the hybridization of each boron atom, (c) Identify the type of reaction that has occurred (redox, Lewis acid-base, or Bronsted acid-base). 

B Boric acid acts as a Lewis acid. The boron atom in B(OH)3 has an incomplete octet and forms a bond by accepting a lone pair of electrons from a water molecule, which is acting as a Lewis base. The complex formed is a weak Bronsted acid in which an acidic proton can be lost from the H20 molecule in the complex. 

The simplest type of Lewis acid-base reaction is the combination of a Lewis acid and a Lewis base to form a compound called an adduct. The reaction of ammonia and trimethyl boron is an example. A new bond forms between boron and nitrogen, with both electrons supplied by the lone pair of ammonia (see Figure 21-21. Forming an adduct with ammonia allows boron to use all of its valence orbitals to form covalent bonds. As this occurs, the geometry about the boron atom changes from trigonal planar to tetrahedral, and the hybrid description of the boron valence orbitals changes from s p lo s p ... 

Closely related to, but distinct from, the anionic boron and aluminum hydrides are the neutral boron (borane, BH3) and aluminum (alane, A1H3) hydrides. These molecules also contain hydrogen that can be transferred as hydride. Borane and alane differ from the anionic hydrides in being electrophilic species by virtue of the vacant p orbital and are Lewis acids. Reduction by these molecules occurs by an intramolecular hydride transfer in a Lewis acid-base complex of the reactant and reductant. 

TS, which is usually based on the chair (Zimmerman-Traxler) model. This pattern is particularly prevalent for the allylic borane reagents, where the Lewis acidity of boron promotes a tight cyclic TS, but at the same time limits the possibility of additional chelation. The dominant factors in these cases are the E- or Z-configuration of the allylic reagent and the conformational preferences of the reacting aldehyde (e.g., a Felkin-type preference.)... 

Substitution of the dimethylsilyl group by bis(tert-butyl)-stannyl does not change the structure in solution, e.g. 33 is found to be monomeric. A very interesting dimer is 26. In contrast to the centrosymmetrical dimer of 1 (C-Symmetry), 26 has a twofold axis (C2, see Fig. 9). This special structure may be due to intramolecular Lewis acid-base interactions between the boron and nitrogen atoms 39). Nevertheless,... 

Ammonia reacts with boron trichloride to form a molecule called an adduct or Lewis acid base complex in which the lone pair on the ammonia molecule is shared with the boron atom to form a covalent bond and completing an octet on boron (Figure 1.16) ... 

Figure 1.16 The ammonia-boron trifluoride donor-acceptor complex (a) donor Lewis base, (b) acceptor Lewis acid, (c) the donor-acceptor or Lewis acid-base complex.

Boron-based Lewis acids are often used in organic syntheses. Since the boron atom has an empty / -orbital, many boron compounds can function as Lewis acids. Typical boron Lewis acids are boron trihalides, for which Lewis acidity increases according to the order of fluoride < chloride < bromide < iodide, the reason for this order being the relative abilities of the different halogens to act as 7r-donors to boron. 

As has already been mentioned, boron halides are electron-deficient molecules. As a result, they tend to act as strong Lewis acids by accepting electron pairs from many types of Lewis bases to form stable acid-base adducts. Electron donors such as ammonia, pyridine, amines, ethers, and many other types of compounds form stable adducts. In behaving as strong Lewis acids, the boron halides act as acid catalysts for several important types of organic reactions (see Chapter 9). 

Figure 3.34 Atomic-charge variations AQ= Q(R) - Q(oo) for boron (circles) and nitrogen (squares) atoms of the

The first example of a stable 1,1-bidentate Lewis acid based on boron and zirconium has been reported [35]. The synthesis of 22 is outlined in Scheme 7.12. Treatment of hex-l-yne with HBBr2 Me2S followed by conversion of the dibromoboronic ester to the corresponding alkenyl boronic acid and esterification with propane-1,3-diol provided the alkenyl boronic ester. Hydrozirconation of this compound with 3 equivalents of the Schwartz reagent, Cp2Zr(H)Cl [57], afforded the desired product 22 in 86% yield. 

Borane, BH3, is an avid electron-pair acceptor, having only six valence electrons on boron. Pure borane exists as a dimer in which two hydrogens bridge the borons. In aprotic solvents that can act as electron donors such as ethers, tertiary amines, and sulfides, borane forms Lewis acid-base adducts. 

All Br0nsted-Lowry acids are Lewis acids, but in practice, the term Lewis acid is generally reserved for Lewis acids that don t also fit the Bronsted-Lowry definition. The best way to spot a Lewis acid-base pair is to draw a Lewis dot structure of the reacting substances, noting the presence of lone pairs of electrons. (We introduce Lewis structures in Chapter 5.) For example, consider the reaction between ammonia (NH3) and boron trifluoride (BFj) ... 

At first glance, neither the reactants nor the product appears to be an acid or base, but the reactants are revealed as a Lewis acid-base pair when drawn as Lewis dot structures as in Figure 16-1. Ammonia donates its lone pair of electrons to the bond with boron trifluoride, making ammonia the Lewis base and boron trifluoride the Lewis acid. 

Borane (BH3), boron trichloride (BCI3) and boron trifluoride (BF3) are known as Lewis acids, because boron has a vacant d orbital that accepts a pair of electrons from a donor species. For example, diethyl ether acts as a Lewis base towards BCI3 and forms a complex of boron trichloride. 

Boron and aluminum atoms need five electrons to complete their octets. However, they may be unable to acquire that number of electrons from the atoms to which they are bonded. As a result, the compounds these elements form have special chemical characteristics. Moreover, they introduce an important class of reactions that are called Lewis acid-base reactions. ... 

The same considerations are true for Lewis acids and bases. Pure boron trifluoride does not act as a Lewis acid because there is nothing present capable of donating electrons to it. If diethyl ether is added, boron trifluoride etherate, a stable Lewis acid-base complex, is produced. Obviously the electron pairs on the oxygen atom of diethyl ether can be donated to boron trifluoride. When a Lewis base is present, then boron trifluoride functions very effectively as a Lewis acid. 

Thus the reaction of acetone with BF3 is a Lewis acid-base reaction in which a lone pair of the ketone oxygen atom is donated to an unfilled valence orbital of BF3. Bond formation is accompanied by the development of formal charges on both oxygen and boron. 

Its unique reactivity comes from the fact that borane first forms a Lewis acid-base complex with the acid and then a boron-carboxylate intermediate which increases the reactivity of the boron hydride and delivers the hydride by an intramolecular reaction. As such it provides a selective way to reduce acids and produce alcohols in the presence of most other functional groups. 

Lewis acids based on boronic acid derivatives or main group elements such as mercury, tin and silicon form strong bonds to anions with considerable covalency, exemplified by hydride sponge and the anticrowns. 

Allyl boronates react very slowly with carbonyl compounds as compared to the corresponding allyldialkylboranes, due to the presence of two oxygen atoms on boron which diminish the Lewis acidity of boron. However, the activity of the allyl boronates can be enhanced by the addition of Lewis acid catalysts. There have been two complementary approaches described for the stereoselective allylation with allyl boronates, one involving the use of chiral Lewis acid, and the other involving chiral allyl boronates in conjunction with achiral Lewis acid catalyst. Several chiral fVsymmetric-based 1,2-diols 197 have been employed in combination with SnCLj as a Lewis acid and excellent level of enantioselectivity has been observed for the allylation to furnish homoallylic alcohols 198 with high ee (Equation 8) <2006AGE2426>. 

When iodosylbenzene is treated with boron trifluoride etherate, it is both depolymer-ized and rendered more electrophilic, presumably because of the formation of a Lewis acid-base adduct (equation 4). 

According to the Lewis definition, an acid is an electron pair acceptor and a base is an electron pair donor. All Bronsted-Lowry bases are also Lewis bases. However, Lewis acids include many species that are not proton acids instead of H+, they have some other electron-deficient species that acts as the electron pair acceptor. An example of a Lewis acid-base reaction is provided by the following equation. In this reaction the boron of BF3 is electron/deficient (it has only six electrons in its valence shell). The oxygen of the ether is a Lewis base and uses a pair of electrons to form a bond to the boron, thus completing boron s octet. 

The Lewis acid-base complex of water and boron trifluoride donates a proton to an isobutylene monomer to produce a carbocation. This carbocation adds to another isobutylene monomer to produce a laiger carbocation, and the process continues, producing the polymer ... 

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