Pentagonal bipyramidal clusters boranes

Many other linked polyhedra similar to molecular boranes are found for B-rich solid compounds of alkali and alkaline-earth metals. There are octahedra in Li2B6, octahedra and pentagonal bipyramids in Na3B2o, dodecahedra and bicapped square antiprisms in U3B14 and icosahedra in Na2B29. The cluster connection is particularly clear for compounds of this type. 

The adherence to close-packed structural arrangements lends support to the idea that these compounds can be used as models for metal surface chemistry—with respect to chemisorbed species and their mobility and reactions of substrates on these surfaces. It also indicates a marked deviation from the behavior of boranes and their derivatives. Structures based upon some polyhedra favored by boron, such as the pentagonal bipyramid, triangulated dodecahedron, and especially the icosahedron, are absent so far in metal-carbonyl cluster chemistry. In this connection, it has been mentioned that [M(CO)3],g compounds should be the closest analogs to On skeletal electron counting... 

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