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A 60-year search is over: Chemists isolate long-elusive molecules with boron-oxygen triple bonds
Phys.org • • science
Key Points:
- Chemists at the University of Würzburg, led by Professor Holger Braunschweig and supported by computational work from Tezpur University, have developed a method to prepare and isolate stable oxoboranes, a challenge unresolved for over 60 years.
- Oxoboranes, compounds with boron-oxygen triple bonds, have been difficult to isolate due to boron's reluctance to form triple bonds, despite decades of synthetic attempts worldwide.
- The discovery occurred when doctoral students reacted diboracumulene with various ketones, unexpectedly producing stable oxoboranes as main products, surprising researchers who had long considered these compounds too unstable.
- The team successfully prepared three different oxoboranes, demonstrating the method's potential to create a wider range of these elusive molecules and possibly extend to other challenging compounds across the periodic table.
