Transition-Metal-Promoted Reactions of Boron Hydrides. 6. Platinum(II) Bromide Catalyzed Borane and Carborane Dehydrodimerization Reactions: A New Synthetic Route to Boron-Boron Linked Multicage Boranes and Carboranes

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/ja00337a024

Platinum dibromide has been found to be a general dehydrodimerization catalyst for boron hydrides and carboranes leading to the formation of boron-boron linked polyhedral cage compounds.The reactions of a variety of small cage systems were explored, and all coupling reactions were found to proceed at moderate temperatures, were highly selective, and gave excellent yields of linked-cage products.These techniques have been used to prepare a number of new coupled cage boron hydrides and carboranes, including 1:1'-2, 1:2'-, 1:2'-<1'-CH3B5H7>, 1:2'-<2-CH3B5H7><3'-CH3B5H7>, and 2:2'-<1,6-C2B4H5>2, as well as to provide improved synthetic routes to the previously known compounds, 1:2'-2 and 2:2'-<1,5-C2B3H4>2.