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Carborane fused boron doped polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were accessed by dehydrobrominative and dehydrogenative borylation.

 

The additions of the phosphinoboronate ester Ph2PBpin to an antiaromatic borole and a borafluorene is reported. The Lewis acid/base adducts are obtained in excellent yields and represent the first P-donor adducts of Ph2PBpin. 

Reactions of tris(ortho-carboranyl)borane with Lewis bases reveals only small bases bind. The tremendous bulk and Lewis acidity is leveraged in frustrated Lewis pair Si–H cleavage with a wider range of Lewis bases and greater efficacy than B(C₆F₅)₃.

 

A series of anionic group 6 tricarbonyl and neutral rhodium dicarbonyl complexes featuring a boratabenzene (L1, with a phenyl on boron, a trimethylsilyl group on the adjacent carbon and methyl groups on the other carbons) and a borataphenanthrene ligand (L2, with a phenyl group on boron and a trimethylsilyl group on the adjacent carbon) are prepared. The donor ability of the boracyclic ligands is evaluated experimentally and theoretically by the stretching frequencies of the CO ancillary ligands. Overall, the donor ability of the ligands falls into the following trend: L1 > cyclopentadienyl > L2 > mesitylene. 

The reaction of Ph 3 PAuN 3 with 9-Ph-9-borafluorene resulted in complexation of the azide to boron while a gold acetylide reacted with 9-Ph-9-borafluorene to insert the acetylide carbon to access a six-membered boracycle with an exocyclic double bond. 

Nickel K- and L 2,3 -edge X-ray absorption spectra (XAS) are discussed for 16 complexes and complex ions with nickel centers spanning a range of formal oxidation states from II to IV. K-edge XAS alone is shown to be an ambiguous metric of physical oxidation state for these Ni complexes. Meanwhile, L 2,3 -edge XAS reveals that the physical d-counts of the formally Ni IV compounds measured lie well above the d 6 count implied by the oxidation state formalism. The generality of this phenomenon is explored computationally by scrutinizing 8 additional complexes. The extreme case of NiF 6 2− is considered using high-level molecular orbital approaches as well as advanced valence bond methods. The emergent electronic structure picture reveals that even highly electronegative F-donors are incapable of supporting a physical d 6 Ni IV center. The reactivity of Ni IV complexes is then discussed, highlighting the dominant role of the ligands in this chemistry over that of the metal centers.