Boron Valence Electrons
Thus, the structure of BF 3, with single bonds, and 6 valence electrons around the central boron is the most likely structure; BF 3 reacts strongly with compounds which have an unshared pair of electrons which can be used to form a bond with the boron: More than an octet (most common example of exceptions to the octet rule). Download mafia 3 mac. Mar 15, 2019 We know that the atomic number of boron is 5.So boron has 5 protons and 5 electrons as the charge of electrons and protons are equal but opposite in nature.The charge of proton is +1 and the charge of electron is -1. Boron is a quirky little element with four bonding orbitals but only three valence electrons. The odd number of electrons makes boron electron-poor yet rich with opportunities for chemical reactivity and influencing materials properties.
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Join Britannica's Publishing Partner Program and our community of experts to gain a global audience for your work!Boron (B), chemical element, semimetal of main Group 13 (IIIa, or boron group) of the periodic table, essential to plant growth and of wide industrial application.
atomic number | 5 |
---|---|
atomic weight | [10.806, 10.821] |
melting point | 2,200 °C (4,000 °F) |
boiling point | 2,550 °C (4,620 °F) |
specific gravity | 2.34 (at 20 °C [68 °F]) |
oxidation state | +3 |
electron configuration | 1s22s22p1 |
Properties, occurrence, and uses
Pure crystalline boron is a black, lustrous semiconductor; i.e., it conducts electricity like a metal at high temperatures and is almost an insulator at low temperatures. It is hard enough (9.3 on Mohs scale) to scratch some abrasives, such as carborundum, but too brittle for use in tools. It constitutes about 0.001 percent by weight of Earth’s crust. Boron occurs combined as borax, kernite, and tincalconite (hydrated sodium borates), the major commercial boron minerals, especially concentrated in the arid regions of California, and as widely dispersed minerals such as colemanite, ulexite, and tourmaline. Sassolite—natural boric acid—occurs especially in Italy.
Boron was first isolated (1808) by French chemists Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis-Jacques Thenard and independently by British chemist Sir Humphry Davy by heating boron oxide (B2O3) with potassium metal. The impure amorphous product, a brownish black powder, was the only form of boron known for more than a century. Pure crystalline boron may be prepared with difficulty by reduction of its bromide or chloride (BBr3, BCl3) with hydrogen on an electrically heated tantalum filament.
Limited quantities of elemental boron are widely used to increase hardness in steel. Added as the ironalloyferroboron, it is present in many steels, usually in the range 0.001 to 0.005 percent. Boron is also used in the nonferrous-metals industry, generally as a deoxidizer, in copper-base alloys and high-conductance copper as a degasifier, and in aluminum castings to refine the grain. In the semiconductor industry, small, carefully controlled amounts of boron are added as a doping agent to silicon and germanium to modify electrical conductivity.
In the form of boric acid or borates, traces of boron are necessary for growth of many land plants and thus are indirectly essential for animal life. Typical effects of long-term boron deficiency are stunted, misshapen growth; vegetable “brown heart” and sugar beet “dry rot” are among the disorders due to boron deficiency. Boron deficiency can be alleviated by the application of soluble borates to the soil. In excess quantities, however, borates act as unselective herbicides. Gigantism of several species of plants growing in soil naturally abundant in boron has been reported. It is not yet clear what the precise role of boron in plant life is, but most researchers agree that the element is in some way essential for the normal growth and functioning of apical meristems, the growing tips of plant shoots.
Pure boron exists in at least four crystalline modifications or allotropes. Closed cages containing 12 boron atoms arranged in the form of an icosahedron occur in the various crystalline forms of elemental boron.
Crystalline boron is almost inert chemically at ordinary temperatures. Boiling hydrochloric acid does not affect it, and hot concentrated nitric acid only slowly converts finely powdered boron to boric acid (H3BO3). Boron in its chemical behaviour is nonmetallic.
In nature, boron consists of a mixture of two stable isotopes—boron-10 (19.9 percent) and boron-11 (80.1 percent); slight variations in this proportion produce a range of ±0.003 in the atomic weight. Both nuclei possess nuclear spin (rotation of the atomic nuclei); that of boron-10 has a value of 3 and that of boron-11, 3/2, the values being dictated by quantum factors. These isotopes are therefore of use in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and spectrometers specially adapted to detecting the boron-11 nucleus are available commercially. The boron-10 and boron-11 nuclei also cause splitting in the resonances (that is, the appearance of new bands in the resonance spectra) of other nuclei (e.g., those of hydrogenatoms bonded to boron).
A Boron Atom Valence Electrons
The boron-10 isotope is unique in that it possesses an extremely large capture cross section (3,836 barns) for thermal neutrons (i.e., it readily absorbs neutrons of low energy). The capture of a neutron by a nucleus of this isotope results in the expulsion of an alpha particle (nucleus of a helium atom, symbolized α):
Since the high-energy alpha particle does not travel far in normal matter, boron and some of its compounds have been used in the fabrication of neutron shields (materials not penetrable by neutrons). In the Geiger counter, alpha particles trigger a response, whereas neutrons do not; hence, if the gas chamber of a Geiger counter is filled with a gaseous boron derivative (e.g., boron trifluoride), the counter will record each alpha particle produced when a neutron that passes into the chamber is captured by a boron-10 nucleus. In this way, the Geiger counter is converted into a device for detecting neutrons, which normally do not affect it.
The affinity of boron-10 for neutrons also forms the basis of a technique known as boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) for treating patients suffering from brain tumours. For a short time after certain boron compounds are injected into a patient with a brain tumour, the compounds collect preferentially in the tumour; irradiation of the tumour area with thermal neutrons, which cause relatively little general injury to tissue, results in the release of a tissue-damaging alpha particle in the tumour each time a boron-10 nucleus captures a neutron. In this way destruction can be limited preferentially to the tumour, leaving the normal brain tissue less affected. BNCT has also been studied as a treatment for tumours of the head and neck, the liver, the prostate, the bladder, and the breast.
Boron Group Valence Electrons
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Boron is the fifth element of the periodic table (Z=5), located in Group 13. It is classified as a metalloid due it its properties that reflect a combination of both metals and nonmetals.
Introduction
The name Boron comes from the Arabic and Persian words for borax, its principal ore. Although compounds of boron were known in ancient times, it was first isolated in 1808 by Gay-Lussac and Thénard and independently by Sir Humphry Davy (who has a lot of elements to his credit!).
Boron exists in the earth's crust to the extent of only about 10 ppm (about the same abundance as lead). The pure element is shiny and black. It is very hard and in extremely pure form is nearly as hard as diamond, but much too brittle for practical use. At high temperatures it is a good conductor but at room temperature and below is an insulator. This behavior as well as many of its other properties earn it the classification of a metalloid. In addition to the crystalline form of boron there is also an amorphous dark brown powder (as shown above).
The element can be prepared by the reduction of borax ((Na_2B_4O_7)) with carbon. High-purity boron can be produced by electrolysis of molten potassium fluoroborate. Common compounds of boron include borax and boric acid ((H_3BO_3)).
Atomic Mass | 10.811 g/mol |
Electronic Configuration | [He]2s2 2p1 |
Melting Point | 2349 K |
Boiling Point | 4200 K |
Heat of Fusion | 50.2 kJ/mol |
Heat of Vaporization | 480 kJ/mol |
Specific Heat Capacity | 11.087 J/mol·K |
Oxidation States | +4, +3, +2, +1 |
Magnetic Ordering | diamagnetic |
Electronegativity | 2.04 |
Atomic Radius | 90 pm |
Stable Isotopes | 10B, 11B |
Boron is the only element in group 3 that is not a metal. It has properties that lie between metals and non-metals (semimetals). For example Boron is a semiconductor unlike the rest of the group 13 elements. Chemically, it is closer to aluminum than any of the other group 13 elements.
History
Boron was first discovered by Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis-Jaques Thenard, and independently by Humphry Davy in the year 1808. These chemists isolated Boron by combining boric acid with potassium. Today, there are many ways of obtaining Boron but the most common way is by heating borax (a compound of sodium and boron) with calcium.
Boron and its Compounds
Many boron compounds are electron-deficient, meaning that they lack an octet of electrons around the central boron atom. This deficiency is what accounts for boron being a strong Lewis acid, in that it can accept protons (H+ ions) in solution. Boron-hydrogen compounds are referred to as boron hydrides, or boranes.
Boranes
In the molecule BH3, each of the 3 hydrogen atoms is bonded to the central boron atom. The boron atom has only six electrons in its outer shell, leading to an electron deficiency.
Diborane:
HH
I I
H - B?B - H
I I
HH
This molecule has 12 valence shell electrons; 3 each from the B atoms, and 1 each from the six H atoms. To make this structure follow the rules required to draw any lewis structure model, then it must have 14 valence shell electrons; however it does not. According to this figure, the two B atoms and four H atoms lie in the same plane (sp3- perpendicular to the plane of the page). In these four bonds 8 electrons are involved. Four electrons bond the remaining H atoms to the two B atoms and the B atoms together. This is done when the two H atoms simultaneously bond to the two B atoms. This creates what is called an atom 'bridge' because there are two electrons shared among three atoms. These bonds are also called three-center two-electron bonds. The bond between the H and the B atoms can be rationalized using molecular orbital theory.
Other Boron Compounds
Although boron compounds are widely distributed in Earth's crust, a few concentrated ores are located in Italy, Russia, Tibet, Turkey, and California. Borax is the most common ore found, and it can be turned into a variety of boron compounds. When a solution of borax and hydrogen peroxide is crystallized, sodium perborate (NaBO3 * 4 H2O) is formed. Sodium perborate is used in color-safe bleaches. The key to the bleaching ability of this compound is the presence of its two peroxo groups that bridge the boron atoms together. Another compound that other boron compounds can be synthesized from is boric acid (B(OH)3). When mixed with water, the weakly acidic and electron deficient boric acid accepts an OH- ion from water and forms the complex ion [B(OH)4]-.
Borate salts produce basic solutions that are used in cleaning agents. Boric acid is also used as an insecticide to kill roaches, and as an antiseptic in eyewash solutions. Adobe camera raw 8.6 download mac. Other boron compounds are used in a variety of things, for example: adhesives, cement, disinfectants, fertilizers, fire retardants, glass, herbicides, metallurgical fluxes, and textile bleaches and dye.
References
- Adair, Rick, ed. Boron. The Rosen Group Inc., 2007. Print.
- Hasan, Heather. The Boron Elements: Boron, Aluminum, Gallium, Indium, Thallium. Rosen Group, 2009. Print.
Problems
- What is the electronic configuration of boron?
- What accounts for the formation of boron hydrides?
- What are some uses of boron compounds?
- Draw B4H10.
- What is the molecular orbital theory and how is it used to rationalize the bonds in boron hydrides?
Answers
- [He]2s2 2p1
- Boron is highly electronegative, and wants to form compounds with hydrogen atoms.
- Adhesives, cement, disinfectants, fertilizers, etc.
- The molecular orbital theory treats compounds not as having individual bonds between atoms, but as sharing electrons with multiple atoms through their orbitals. In this way, hydrogen atoms are 'bonded' between 2 other atoms at a time, in that a pair of electrons is shared between 3 atoms at once.
Contributors and Attributions
- Forogh Rahim (UCD)
Stephen R. Marsden