Collect. Czech. Chem. Commun. 1994, 59, 1584-1595
https://doi.org/10.1135/cccc19941584

Nine- and Eight-Vertex Polyhedral Dicarbaborane Chemistry: New arachno and hypho Dicarbaboranes from arachno-4,5-C2B7H13: Isolation and Characterization of the [arachno-4,5-C2B7H12]- and [hypho-7,8-C2B6H13]- Anions, and of the Neutral Ligand Derivatives exo-6-(MeNC)-arachno-4,5-C2B7H11 and exo-5-L-hypho-4,9-C2B7H13 (L = NMe3 and NEt3)

Tomáš Jelíneka, Josef Holuba, Bohumil Štíbra, Xavier L. R. Fontaineb and John D. Kennedyb

a Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 250 68 Řež near Prague, Czech Republic
b School Of Chemistry, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, England

Abstract

Deprotonation of neutral arachno-4,5-C2B7H13 (1) either with 1, 8-(NMe2)2C10H6 (proton sponge, PS) or with a mixture of aqueous K2CO3 and [NMe4]Cl leads to the isolation in high yield of the [arachno-4,5-C2B7H12]- anion (2). Isostructural with this anion is the ligand derivative exo-6-(MeNC)-arachno-4,5-C2B7H11 (3), which is prepared in 20% yield from the reaction between arachno-4,5-C2B7H13 and MeNC in dichloromethane. Under comparable conditions compound 1 with tertiary amines gives the first representatives of the nine-vertex hypho family of dicarbaboranes, the ligand derivatives exo-5-(NR3)-hypho-4,9-C2B7H13 (4a and 4b, where R = Me and Et, respectively) in moderate yields (20 - 55%), whereas the reaction between 1 and aqueous NaCN results in the selective removal of one boron vertex to yield the eight-vertex [hypho-7,8-C2B6H13]- anion (5) in 61% yield. All compounds isolated were characterized by 11B and 1H NMR spectroscopy, with two-dimensional and selective decoupling techniques giving unambiguous assignments.