Abstract
The electron density of the form of boron has been obtained by multipole refinement against high-resolution, single-crystal x-ray diffraction data measured on a high-quality single crystal at a temperature of 100 K. Topological properties of this density have been used to show that all chemical bonds between B clusters in -B are formed due to one orbital on each boron atom that is oriented perpendicular to the surface of the cluster. It is shown that the same orbital order on B clusters persists in both -B and -B polymorphs and in several dodecaboranes, despite the fact that in every case the B clusters participate in entirely different kinds of exocluster bonds. It is likely that the same orbital order of B clusters can explain bonding in other boron polymorphs and boron-rich solids.
1 More- Received 3 September 2012
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.88.024118
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