chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

, an oxoborane is any

chemical compound A chemical compound is a chemical substance composed of many identical molecules (or molecular entities) containing atoms from more than one chemical element held together by chemical bonds. A molecule consisting of atoms of only one element ...

containing a

boron Boron is a chemical element; it has symbol B and atomic number 5. In its crystalline form it is a brittle, dark, lustrous metalloid; in its amorphous form it is a brown powder. As the lightest element of the boron group it has three ...

atom with a terminal

oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...

atom (a

functional group In organic chemistry, a functional group is any substituent or moiety (chemistry), moiety in a molecule that causes the molecule's characteristic chemical reactions. The same functional group will undergo the same or similar chemical reactions r ...

). The compound class is of some relevance to academic research. The parent compound, HBO, itself called "oxoborane", together with derivatives , , , and have been detected in

matrix isolation Matrix isolation is an experimental technique used in chemistry and physics. It generally involves a material being trapped within an unreactive matrix. A ''host'' matrix is a continuous solid phase in which ''guest'' particles (atoms, molecules, ...

or in the gaseous phase at high temperature. In these compounds the boron and oxygen form a

triple bond A triple bond in chemistry is a chemical bond between two atoms involving six Electron pair bond, bonding electrons instead of the usual two in a covalent bond, covalent single bond. Triple bonds are stronger than the equivalent covalent bond, sin ...

prone to cyclotrimerization to

boroxine Boroxine () is a 6-membered heterocyclic compound composed of alternating oxygen and singly-hydrogenated boron atoms. Boroxine derivatives (boronic anhydrides) such as trimethylboroxine and triphenylboroxine also make up a broader class of compo ...

Derivatives

Although monomeric oxoboranes have not been isolated, derivatives have been described. A

Lewis acid A Lewis acid (named for the American physical chemist Gilbert N. Lewis) is a chemical species that contains an empty orbital which is capable of accepting an electron pair from a Lewis base to form a Lewis adduct. A Lewis base, then, is any ...

-stabilized

adduct In chemistry, an adduct (; alternatively, a contraction of "addition product") is a product of a direct addition of two or more distinct molecules, resulting in a single reaction product containing all atoms of all components. The resultant is ...

of an oxoborane is ( NacNacB=O^.AlCl₃. In this compound the oxygen atom is coordinated to

aluminium chloride Aluminium chloride, also known as aluminium trichloride, is an inorganic compound with the formula . It forms a hexahydrate with the formula , containing six water molecules of hydration. Both the anhydrous form and the hexahydrate are col ...

. The BO bond length is 130 pm (compare to 136 pm in regular boronic acids). Related systems are known. In ''trans''- Cy₃P)₂PtBr(BO)

platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...

is coordinated to the BO unit.''Oxoboryl Complexes: Boron−Oxygen Triple Bonds Stabilized in the Coordination Sphere of Platinum'' Holger Braunschweig, Krzysztof Radacki and Achim Schneider Science 16 April 2010 Vol. 328 no. 5976 pp. 345-347 In this compound the BO

bond length In molecular geometry, bond length or bond distance is defined as the average distance between Atomic nucleus, nuclei of two chemical bond, bonded atoms in a molecule. It is a Transferability (chemistry), transferable property of a bond between at ...

is 120 picometers.

References

{{oxygen compounds Boron compounds Oxygen compounds