Boron monoxide
chemical compound
Boron monoxide (BO) is a binary compound of boron and oxygen. The material was first reported in 1940, with a modified synthetic procedure published in 1955, however, the material's structure had remained unknown for nearly a century. A number of allotropes of BO have been theorized ranging from molecular species, to 1D, 2D, and 3D-structured materials, but these were difficult to differentiate using common structural characterization methods. The material sheets composed of O-bridged B4O2 rings, and most likely adopts the 1D polymeric structure initially proposed in 1955. Due to the lack of precise structural information on the identity of the compound, it has not found widespread use in industry.
Synthesis
Boron monoxide is typically produced through the condensation of tetrahydroxydiboron (chemical formula; B2(OH)4) at temperatures of 200–500°C. The use of higher temperatures (700°C) leads to the formation of hard B2O3 glasses. These glasses generally have a dark appearance, from the dissolved elemental boron, and are also produced directly through the dissolution of B into B2O3.
BO has been used in the synthesis of B2Cl4, which served as the only evidence, until 2010, of the preservation of the B–B bond present in the precursor compound.
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