Rocket fuel decaborane

Other boron hydrides are known, most of them having the general formula B H + 4- for example pentaborane, B5H9, decaborane, BjqHi4. Each can be made by heating diborane in suitable conditions for example at 420 K, decaborane is obtained. Boron hydrides have been tried as rocket fuels. 

Following the introduction of the boron hydrides in the 1940s as rocket fuels, the neurotoxic properties of diborane, pentaborane, and decaborane became known (Yarbrough et al. 1985). Diborane, a gas, produces mostly pulmonary symptoms. Pentaborane, a liquid, and decaborane, a solid, cause severe cardiac and neurological damage. 

In the 1950s, both the United States and the Soviet Union had programs to use decaborane, BioH, as a rocket fuel. This chemical reacts violendy with oxygen according to the reaction, B10H14 +11 O2 5 B2O3 + 7 H2O. For... 

C04-0156. Decaborane, Bio H14, was used as fuel for the Redstone rockets of the 1950s. Decaborane reacts violently with molecular oxygen according to the following equation ... 

Bio Hi4 + O2 B2 O3 + H2 O (unbalanced) The two starting materials are stored in separate containers. When mixed, they ignite spontaneously, releasing large amounts of energy. Both fuel materials should run out at the same time because this minimizes the excess mass that the rocket must carry. If the total mass of both components is to be 12.0 X 10 kg, what mass of liquid oxygen and what mass of decaborane should be used ... 

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