{"id":376691,"date":"2026-10-01T09:16:03","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T09:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/?p=376691"},"modified":"2026-10-01T09:16:03","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T09:16:03","slug":"lipscombs-borane-discoveries-continue-to-provide-advantages-fifty-years-after-nobel-prize-achievement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/?p=376691","title":{"rendered":"Lipscomb’s Borane Discoveries Continue to Provide Advantages Fifty Years After Nobel Prize Achievement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boranes represented some of the most distinctive compounds recognized by chemists during the early to mid-20th century. The contributions of William Lipscomb in clarifying their structures and bonding led to his receipt of the Nobel prize in chemistry in 1976<\/a> and significantly advanced the scientific community’s comprehension of the chemical bond.<\/p>\n

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Initially known as boron hydrides, boranes follow the general formula Bx<\/sub><\/em>Hy<\/sub><\/em>Rz<\/sub><\/em>. Long before Lipscomb showed any interest, Alfred Stock had created the volatile compounds B2<\/sub>H6<\/sub>, B4<\/sub>H20<\/sub>, B5<\/sub>H9<\/sub>, among others.<\/p>\n

During the 1950s, Lipscomb, along with his colleagues Bryce Crawford and Wolfgang Eberhardt, unraveled the structures of various boranes through low-temperature x-ray crystallography, a methodology that was quite rare at that time. Lipscomb found that these compounds shared two electrons across three atoms \u2013 a phenomenon now recognized as three-centre two-electron bonds.<\/p>\n