Four decades of organic chemistry of closo-boranes:: A synthetic toolbox for constructing liquid crystal materials.: A review

Introduction and transformations of organic functional groups to ten- and twelve-vertex closo-boranes and heteroboranes is reviewed in the context of preparation of liquid crystalline compounds. The review, containing 198 references, is designed as a synthetic manual for materials chemists and focuses on methods for engineering molecules with elongated shapes and variable dipole moments. Several underdeveloped aspects of closo-borane chemistry are identified.