Applied Chemistry

Biography

Biography: Xuenian Chen

Abstract

Boron/nitrogen materials are well known and have been applied in many fields because of their unique properties such as super hardness and good abrasivity. On the basis of the Isolobal Analogy, B-N is iso-electronic to C-C so B, N-alkane analogs should have a similar framework to alkanes and be generally occurred. However, a very few B, N-alkane analogs can be used to make B/N materials mainly due to their unavailability. The different electronegativity of boron from nitrogen leads B, N-alkane analogs to be polar molecules and hydrogen bonding to boron and nitrogen atoms are chemical active, which results in totally different properties of B, N-alkane analogs from that of alkanes. For example, ethane is a non-polar molecule and its melting point is -184ËšC, but its isolectronic B, N-alkane analogs, ammonia borane, NH₃BH₃, is a polar molecule with the M.P. 103ËšC. The polarity and activity of B, N-alkane analogs mentioned above make their preparation difficult. As a result, only a few B, N-alkane analogs such as NH₃ (BH₂NH₂) nBH₃, (n=0, 1, 2) were prepared, and in most case, these compounds were serendipitously prepared. We found such B, N-alkane analogs can be target synthesized using proper reactions. In this topic, we report the target synthesis of B, N-alkane analogs. We will also discuss the influence factors and mechanism of reactions and try to summarize the general synthetic methods for preparation of long chain B, N-alkane analogs.