Metal-boron-hydrogen systems

The interstitial structures comprise the compounds of certain metallic elements, notably the transition metals and those of the lanthanide and actinide series, with the four non-metallic elements hydrogen, boron, carbon and nitrogen. In chapter 8 we discussed the structures of a number of hydrides, borides, carbides and nitrides of the most electropositive metals, and these we found to be typical salt-like compounds with a definite composition and with physical properties entirely different from those of the constituent elements they are generally transparent to light and poor conductors of electricity. The systems now to be considered are strikingly different. They resemble... 

S.A. Shevlin and Z.X. Guo, Transition-metal-doping-enhanced hydrogen storage in boron nitride systems , Applied Physics Letters, 89, 153104 (2006). 

Yoon and Guo describe boronic acid systems that can bind to nucleophilic species, 1,2-diols, and arylboronates that are converted into the corresponding phenols by treatment with hydrogen peroxide. Resulting in fluorescent chemosensors for carbohydrates, dopamine, fluoride, metal ions and hydrogen peroxide. 

Iron chelators can also be used to selectively bind iron in areas where oxidative stress is observed, thereby preventing the iron from taking part in Fenton reactions without interfering with normal iron homeostasis. Charkoudian et al. have developed boronic acid and boronic ester masked prochelators, which do not bind metals unless exposed to hydrogen peroxide (237,238). The binding of these chelators to iron(III) prevents redox cycling. Similar studies of these systems have been performed by a separate group (239,240). 

A wide variety of E-H a bonds (E = boron or transition metal) act unexpectedly as efficient hydrogen bond acceptors toward conventional proton donors, such as O-H and N-H groups. The resulting X-H- - H-E systems have close H- H contacts (175-190 pm) and are termed dihydrogen bonds. ... 

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