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Inorganic chemistry

Peculiar boron startles again

Nature volume 522, pages 297–298 (2015)Cite this article

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Boron's unusual properties inspired big advances in chemistry. A compound in which boron binds two carbon monoxide molecules reveals another oddity — the element forms bonds similar to those of transition metals. See Letter p.327

Transition-metal compounds take part in a wide range of reactions and catalytic cycles as a result of the metals' abilities to form complexes with several ligands through a process known as donor–acceptor bonding. Many transition metals can bind several carbonyl ligands (carbon monoxide molecules). By contrast, the main-group elements — those found in groups 1, 2 and 13 to 18 of the periodic table, excluding hydrogen — were for a long time thought not to be able to form complexes that bind more than one carbonyl. Writing on page 327, Braunschweig et al.1 report the synthesis of a compound, known as a borylene adduct, in which an atom of the main-group element boron carries two carbonyl ligands, and which has remarkable similarities to transition-metal carbonyl complexes. This provides striking evidence of donor–acceptor bonding in the chemistry of main-group elements.

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Figure 1: The electronic structure of boron compounds.

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  1. Gernot Frenking is at the Fachbereich Chemie, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Hans-Meerwein-Strasse, Marburg 35039, Germany.,

    Gernot Frenking

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Correspondence to Gernot Frenking.

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Frenking, G. Peculiar boron startles again. Nature 522, 297–298 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/522297a

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