In chemistry, a metalloborane is a compound that contains one or more metal atoms and one or more boron hydride.
These compounds are related conceptually and often synthetically to the boron-hydride clusters by replacement of BHn units with metal-containing fragments.
The MB4 cores (M = Fe or Co) of these two compounds adopt structures expected for nido 5-vertex clusters.
These anions function as ligands for a variety of metals, often forming sandwich complexes.
Reaction of this carborane with iron carbonyl sources gives closo Fe- and Fe2-containing products, according to these idealized equations:[6] A further example of insertion into a closo carborane is the synthesis of the yellow-orange solid closo-1,2,3-(CO)3FeC2B4H6: A closely related reaction involves the capping of an anionic nido carborane C2B4H−7 The last reaction is worked up with acid and air.