Ligand polyhedral boranes

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. 

Heteroatom Cluster Compounds Incorporating Polyhedral Boranes as Ligands... 

This, together with the Ir-H terminal bond indicates that the compound can be regarded as a further example of the growing number of compounds in which the high oxidation state Ir(v) is stabilized by coordination to a soft polyhedral borane ligand... 

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. 

In the preceding reaction, the anion X- should be reasonably stable toward reduction and be a weak base. Iodide and polyhedral borane ions meet these requirements, but chloride is sufficiently basic to compete with the donor ligand, producing the following reaction as the predominant one. 

Carboranes - polyhedral boranes containing carbon in the framework - have been known for over 35 years, and their intrinsic stability, versatility, structural variety, and electronic properties have been put to use in a number of diverse areas, [1] for example in the synthesis of extraordinarily heat-stable polymers, in BNCT (boron neutron capture therapy), as ligands in metallacarborane catalysts, as com-plexing agents for extraction of metal ions, as precursors to ceramics, conducting polymers, and nonlinear optical materials, as anticancer... 

A large number of metallacarboranes and polyhedral metallaboranes of s-, p-, d-, and f-block elements are known. In these compounds, the carboranes and boranes act as polyhapto ligands. The domain of metallaboranes and metallacarboranes has grown enormously and engenders a rich structural chemistry. Some new advances in the chemistry of metallacarboranes of f-block elements are described below. 

TiTetal complexes containing borane or borane anion ligands have often been referred to as metalloboranes, especially when the metal can be considered as occupying a boron position in a borane polyhedral fragment. Outlined here are some of our recent experimental findings in the area of metalloborane chemistry. Much of the earlier work was reviewed elsewhere 1,2, 3),... 

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