Boron HydridesBased in part on the article Boron Hydrides by James T. Spencer which appeared in the Encyclopedia of Inorganic Chemistry, First Edition .

Abstract

Boranes are hydrides of boron in which BH groups occupy the apices of electron‐deficient clusters. The term ‘electron deficient’ arises from the fact that boron has more valence orbitals than it does valence electrons. The consequence of this imbalance is that the clusters are stabilized by extensive multicentered bondings. The relationships between cage structures and the number of cage electrons are discussed for boranes and their extension to heteroboranes, where one or more BH units are replaced by isolobal main group or transition metal moieties. General synthetic methods and reactivities of the heteroboranes are also discussed.