Rocket fuel diborane

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. 

L.4 The compound diborane, B2H6, was at one time considered for use as a rocket fuel. Its combustion reaction is... 

Diborane (B2H6) is a highly reactive boron hydride, which was once considered as a possible rocket fuel for the U.S. space program. Calculate AH for the synthesis of diborane from its elements, according to the equation... 

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. 

Boron hydrides were once evaluated for possible use as rocket fuels. Complete and balance the following equation for the combustion of diborane. 

Diborane and related compounds were proposed as rocket fuels in the 1950s. A representative reaction for this class of molecules is that of B2H6 and O2 to form B2O3 and H2O. Write the balanced chemical equation for this process. 

Diborane is valued as a fuel for use in rocket propellants. Gallery Ghemical Co. developed equipment and procedures for the safe handling of diborane and by 1962 had produced about 5 million pounds of the material. It is offered for shipment in chrome-molybdenum steel cylinders at —80° (minimum order 100 g.), and technical bulletins present information on handling procedures and safety precautions. 

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