Macropolyhedral Nickelaboranes from the Metal-Assisted Fusion of KB9H14.

The reaction of K[arachno-B9H14] with [NiCl2(dppe)] produces four new 19-vertex macropolyhedral metallaboranes that result from borane cluster fusion: [9'-(dppe)-9'-Ni-anti-B18H20] (1) and isomeric [11'-(dppe)-11'-Ni-syn-B18H20] (2), together with the chlorine-substituted derivative of 1, [5'-Cl-9'-(dppe)-9'-Ni-anti-B18H19] (3), and the 18-vertex cluster compound [7'-(dppe)-7'-anti-NiB17H21] (4). Two closo 10-vertex single-cluster species, [1-(dppe)-1-closo-NiB9H7Cl2] (5) and [1-(dppe)-1-closo-NiB9H7Cl(OH)] (6), were also isolated from the reaction. The production of the metalated syn-octadecaborane isomer 2 from the fusion of two arachno-nonaborate clusters is the first such case to be observed; in all other reported cases fusion has resulted in products with the anti-octadecaboranyl bis-nido configuration.