Flattening the B6H62- octahedron.: Ab initio prediction of a new family of planar all-boron aromatic molecules

The structural chemistry of boron is dominated by 3D structures (polyhedra), while in carbon structural chemistry the planar aromatic structures are more abundant. In this Communication we present results of ab initio calculations showing that the polyhedral boranes can be flattened into planar aromatic structures similar to their carbon analogues. We predicted that a B6H62- octahedron (in Li2B6H6), a B5H52- trigonal bipyramid (in Li2B5H5), a B7H72- pentagonal bipyramid (in Li2B7H7), and a B10H84- bioctahedron with a joint edge (in Li4B10H8) can be reduced to a planar aromatic B6H66- hexagon (in Li6B6H6), to a planar pentagon B5H56- (in Li6B5H5), to a planar heptagon B7H76- (in Li6B7H7), and to a naphthalene-like B10H810- (in Li10B10H8). Ab initio prediction of these new planar aromatic boranes shows that a large new family of planar aromatic all-boron molecules is possible. Copyright © 2003 American Chemical Society.