Sunday, June 25, 2023

Boron hydride nomenclature

Can we expand the parent hydride naming philosophy much beyond organic chemistry? Not going too far, let’s have a peek at carbon’s immediate neighbour in the periodic table, boron.

(a)
  1. BH3
    borane (preselected name)
    boron trihydride (binary)
    trihydridoboron (additive)

The mononuclear hydride (a) is systematically named ‘borane’ while neutral boron hydrides as a class are called boranes.