Symbolic Structural Formulas for Boron Hydrides

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Abstract
A structural convention is proposed, intended to serve the same function for boron hydrides that the standard valence bond convention serves for organic compounds. It involves the auxiliary concept of the ``valence cone,'' which is the cone swept out by three tetrahedral orbitals rotating about the fourth as an axis. The known open boron hydrides BnHn+p then appear to be even‐electron molecules with the boron atoms approximately in a close‐packed equilateral‐triangular network on the convex surface formed by their overlapping valence cones; with n single B–H bonds normal to this surface; and with p (even) added peripheral hydrogen in the surface located so that every boron atom has neighbors in all three sectors of its valence cone. As long as this network does not form a complete polyhedron, we may represent it on paper by a flat triangular network having the same topology. This prescription gives uniquely and correctly the structures and formulas for the known B2, B4, B5, B6, and B10 hydrides and predicts other possible open compounds up to B11. It would be consistent with the existence of closed inert polyhedral hydrides BnHn up to B12H12 and with chains and lattices of such polyhedra.

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