THE BORANES AND RELATED ALUMINUM COMPOUNDS

A close scrutiny of the seminal report on the boranes reveals that the equivalence traditionally presented between the solid geometrical and the topological pictures of these compounds is incomplete. Because of this mathematical disparity, an alternate geometrical description of the bonding in the boron hydrides is introduced, as well as a new interpretation for the boron bridge. 

This results in the need for a concomitant development of nomenclature to more accurately describe this type of bonding. 

Meanwhile, awaiting reaction of the chemistry community to such structures, canonical names in both the IUPAC and the proposed system are supplied for this set of compounds. A corresponding description and nomenclature for related aluminum compounds is presented. 

In Chapter 2, the use of a bonds for one special bonding that occurs in one particular boron compound, which was called diborane , was introduced. An examination of other boron compounds and the nomenclature associated with them is now undertaken. First of all, it should be noted that despite that boron has three electrons in its outer shell and that a trigonal planar bonding pattern is common in molecules such as BF3, etc., the simplest hydride of boron that is normally encountered is not BH3. To the contrary, under normal conditions of temperature and pressure, not only is the smallest boron hydride a dimer, but also two distinct diboron hydride molecules are encountered. 

As well as the analog to the alkanes in which one of the hydrogen atoms is removed from two methane molecules and the two methyl groups created combine to form ethane, two BH2 modules may be viewed as fused together with a covalent bond between the boron atoms namely B2H4, 

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