Magic electron counts and bonding in tubular boranes
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 23, 2026

Probe Type II Band Alignment in One-Dimensional Van Der Waals Heterostructures Using First-Principles Calculations
Published on: October 12, 2019
Musiri M Balakrishnarajan1, Roald Hoffmann, Pattath D Pancharatna
1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
Abstract:
Ring stacking in some closo-borane dianions and the hypothetical capped borane nanotubes, predicted to be stable earlier, is analyzed in a perturbation theoretic way. A "staggered" building up of rings to form nanotubes is explored for four- and five-membered B(n)H(n) rings. Arguments are given for the stacking of B(5)H(5) rings being energetically more favorable than the stacking of B(4)H(4) rings. Elongated B[bond]B distances in the central rings are predicted for some nanotubes, and the necessity to optimize ring-cap bonding is found to be responsible for this elongation. This effect reaches a maximum in B(17)H(17)(2-); the insertion of additional rings will reduce this elongation. These closo-borane nanotubes obey Wade's n + 1 rule, but the traditional explanation based on a partitioning into radial/tangential molecular orbitals is wanting.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Exceptions to the Octet Rule
Hybridization of Atomic Orbitals I
Molecular Orbital Theory II
Valence Bond Theory
VSEPR Theory and the Effect of Lone Pairs
VSEPR Theory and the Basic Shapes

