Boron trichloride is the

inorganic compound In chemistry, an inorganic compound is typically a chemical compound that lacks carbon–hydrogen bonds, that is, a compound that is not an organic compound. The study of inorganic compounds is a subfield of chemistry known as '' inorganic chemis ...

with the formula BCl₃. This colorless gas is a reagent in

organic synthesis Organic synthesis is a special branch of chemical synthesis and is concerned with the intentional construction of organic compounds. Organic molecules are often more complex than inorganic compounds, and their synthesis has developed into one o ...

. It is highly reactive toward water.

Production and structure

Boron Boron is a chemical element with the symbol B and atomic number 5. In its crystalline form it is a brittle, dark, lustrous metalloid; in its amorphous form it is a brown powder. As the lightest element of the '' boron group'' it has t ...

reacts with

halogens The halogens () are a group in the periodic table consisting of five or six chemically related elements: fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl), bromine (Br), iodine (I), astatine (At), and tennessine (Ts). In the modern IUPAC nomenclature, this group i ...

to give the corresponding trihalides. Boron trichloride is, however, produced industrially by direct

chlorination Chlorination may refer to: * Chlorination reaction In chemistry, halogenation is a chemical reaction that entails the introduction of one or more halogens into a compound. Halide-containing compounds are pervasive, making this type of transform ...

boron oxide Boron oxide may refer to one of several oxides of boron: *Boron trioxide Boron trioxide or diboron trioxide is the oxide of boron with the formula . It is a colorless transparent solid, almost always glassy (amorphous), which can be crystallized ...

and

carbon Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent—its atom making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table. Carbon ma ...

at 501 °C. :B₂O₃ + 3 C + 3 Cl₂ → 2 BCl₃ + 3 CO The

carbothermic reaction Carbothermic reactions involve the reduction of substances, often metal oxides (O^2-), using carbon as the reducing agent. These chemical reactions are usually conducted at temperatures of several hundred degrees Celsius. Such processes are applie ...

is analogous to the

Kroll process The Kroll process is a pyrometallurgical industrial process used to produce metallic titanium from titanium tetrachloride. The Kroll process replaced the Hunter process for almost all commercial production. Process In the Kroll process, the TiCl ...

for the conversion of titanium dioxide to titanium tetrachloride. In the laboratory BF₃ reacted with AlCl₃ gives BCl₃ via halogen exchange. BCl₃ is a trigonal planar molecule like the other boron trihalides, and has a bond length of 175pm. A degree of π-bonding has been proposed to explain the short B− Cl distance although there is some debate as to its extent. It does not dimerize, although NMR studies of mixtures of boron trihalides shows the presence of mixed halides. The absence of dimerisation contrasts with the tendencies of AlCl₃ and GaCl₃, which form dimers or polymers with 4 or 6 coordinate metal centres.

Reactions

BCl₃ hydrolyzes readily to give hydrochloric acid and

boric acid Boric acid, more specifically orthoboric acid, is a compound of boron, oxygen, and hydrogen with formula . It may also be called hydrogen borate or boracic acid. It is usually encountered as colorless crystals or a white powder, that dissolve ...

: :BCl₃ + 3 H₂O → B(OH)₃ + 3 HCl Alcohols behave analogously giving the borate esters, e.g.

trimethyl borate Trimethyl borate is the organoboron compound with the formula B(OCH3)3. It is a colourless liquid that burns with a green flame. It is an intermediate in the preparation of sodium borohydride and is a popular reagent in organic chemistry. It is ...

As a strong

Lewis acid A Lewis acid (named for the American physical chemist Gilbert N. Lewis) is a chemical species that contains an empty orbital which is capable of accepting an electron pair from a Lewis base to form a Lewis adduct. A Lewis base, then, is any sp ...

, BCl₃ forms

adduct An adduct (from the Latin ''adductus'', "drawn toward" alternatively, a contraction of "addition product") is a product of a direct addition of two or more distinct molecules, resulting in a single reaction product containing all atoms of all co ...

s with tertiary

amine In chemistry, amines (, ) are compounds and functional groups that contain a basic nitrogen atom with a lone pair. Amines are formally derivatives of ammonia (), wherein one or more hydrogen atoms have been replaced by a substituent ...

s, phosphines,

ethers In organic chemistry, ethers are a class of compounds that contain an ether group—an oxygen atom connected to two alkyl or aryl groups. They have the general formula , where R and R′ represent the alkyl or aryl groups. Ethers can again be ...

thioether In organic chemistry, an organic sulfide (British English sulphide) or thioether is an organosulfur functional group with the connectivity as shown on right. Like many other sulfur-containing compounds, volatile sulfides have foul odors. A su ...

s, and

halide In chemistry, a halide (rarely halogenide) is a binary chemical compound, of which one part is a halogen atom and the other part is an element or radical that is less electronegative (or more electropositive) than the halogen, to make a flu ...

ions. Adduct formation is often accompanied by an increase in B-Cl bond length. BCl₃•S(CH₃)₂ (CAS# 5523-19-3) is often employed as a conveniently handled source of BCl₃ because this solid (m.p. 88-90 °C) releases BCl₃: :(CH₃)₂S·BCl₃ ⇌ (CH₃)₂S + BCl₃ The mixed

aryl In organic chemistry, an aryl is any functional group or substituent derived from an aromatic ring, usually an aromatic hydrocarbon, such as phenyl and naphthyl. "Aryl" is used for the sake of abbreviation or generalization, and "Ar" is used ...

and

alkyl In organic chemistry, an alkyl group is an alkane missing one hydrogen. The term ''alkyl'' is intentionally unspecific to include many possible substitutions. An acyclic alkyl has the general formula of . A cycloalkyl is derived from a cycloa ...

boron chlorides are also of known.

Phenyl In organic chemistry, the phenyl group, or phenyl ring, is a cyclic group of atoms with the formula C6 H5, and is often represented by the symbol Ph. Phenyl group is closely related to benzene and can be viewed as a benzene ring, minus a hydrogen ...

boron dichloride is commercially available. Such species can be prepared by the

redistribution reaction In chemistry, redistribution usually refers to the exchange of anionic ligands bonded to metal and metalloid centers. The conversion does not involve redox, in contrast to disproportionation reactions. Some useful redistribution reactions are con ...

of BCl₃ with organotin reagents: :2 BCl₃ + R₄Sn → 2 RBCl₂ + R₂SnCl₂

Reduction

Reduction of BCl₃ to elemental boron is conducted commercially In the laboratory, when boron trichloride can be converted to diboron tetrachloride by heating with copper metal: :2 BCl₃ + 2 Cu → B₂Cl₄ + 2 CuCl B₄Cl₄ can also be prepared in this way. Colourless diboron tetrachloride (m.p. -93 °C) is a planar molecule in the solid, (similar to

dinitrogen tetroxide Dinitrogen tetroxide, commonly referred to as nitrogen tetroxide (NTO), and occasionally (usually among ex-USSR/Russia rocket engineers) as amyl, is the chemical compound N2O4. It is a useful reagent in chemical synthesis. It forms an equilibrium ...

, but in the gas phase the structure is staggered. It decomposes at room temperatures to give a series of monochlorides having the general formula (BCl)_''n'', in which ''n'' may be 8, 9, 10, or 11. The compounds with formulas B₈Cl₈ and B₉Cl₉ are known to contain closed cages of boron atoms.

Uses

Boron trichloride is a starting material for the production of elemental boron. It is also used in the

refining {{Unreferenced, date=December 2009 Refining (also perhaps called by the mathematical term affining) is the process of purification of a (1) substance or a (2) form. The term is usually used of a natural resource that is almost in a usable form, b ...

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 of the periodic ...

, zinc, and

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...

alloys to remove

nitride In chemistry, a nitride is an inorganic compound of nitrogen. The "nitride" anion, N3- ion, is very elusive but compounds of nitride are numerous, although rarely naturally occuring. Some nitrides have a find applications, such as wear-resistant ...

carbide In chemistry, a carbide usually describes a compound composed of carbon and a metal. In metallurgy, carbiding or carburizing is the process for producing carbide coatings on a metal piece. Interstitial / Metallic carbides The carbides of t ...

s, and

oxides An oxide () is a chemical compound that contains at least one oxygen atom and one other element in its chemical formula. "Oxide" itself is the dianion of oxygen, an O2– (molecular) ion. with oxygen in the oxidation state of −2. Most of the E ...

from molten metal. It has been used as a soldering flux for alloys of aluminium,

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isol ...

, and

monel Monel is a group of alloys of nickel (from 52 to 67%) and copper, with small amounts of iron, manganese, carbon, and silicon. Monel is not a cupronickel alloy because it has less than 60% copper. Stronger than pure nickel, Monel alloys are res ...

. Aluminum castings can be improved by treating the melt with boron trichloride vapors. In the manufacture of electrical resistors, a uniform and lasting adhesive

carbon film {{distinguish, Carbonaceous film (paleontology) Carbon films are thin film coatings which consist predominantly of the chemical element carbon. They include plasma polymer films, amorphous carbon films (diamond-like carbon, DLC), CVD diamond films ...

can be put over a

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain, ...

base using BCl₃. It has been used in the field of high energy fuels and rocket propellants as a source of boron to raise BTU value. BCl₃ is also used in

plasma etching Plasma etching is a form of plasma processing used to fabricate integrated circuits. It involves a high-speed stream of glow discharge ( plasma) of an appropriate gas mixture being shot (in pulses) at a sample. The plasma source, known as etch spec ...

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way ...

manufacturing. This gas etches metal oxides by formation of a volatile BOCl_x compounds. BCl₃ is used as a

reagent In chemistry, a reagent ( ) or analytical reagent is a substance or compound added to a system to cause a chemical reaction, or test if one occurs. The terms ''reactant'' and ''reagent'' are often used interchangeably, but reactant specifies a ...

in the synthesis of organic compounds. Like the corresponding bromide, it cleaves C-O bonds in

ether In organic chemistry, ethers are a class of compounds that contain an ether group—an oxygen atom connected to two alkyl or aryl groups. They have the general formula , where R and R′ represent the alkyl or aryl groups. Ethers can again ...

Safety

BCl₃ is an aggressive reagent that can form

hydrogen chloride The compound hydrogen chloride has the chemical formula and as such is a hydrogen halide. At room temperature, it is a colourless gas, which forms white fumes of hydrochloric acid upon contact with atmospheric water vapor. Hydrogen chlorid ...

upon exposure to moisture or

alcohol Alcohol most commonly refers to: * Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom * Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks Alcohol may also refer to: Chemicals * Ethanol, one of sev ...

s. The

dimethyl sulfide Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) or methylthiomethane is an organosulfur compound with the formula (CH3)2S. Dimethyl sulfide is a flammable liquid that boils at and has a characteristic disagreeable odor. It is a component of the smell produced from co ...

adduct (BCl₃SMe₂), which is a solid, is much safer to use, when possible, but H₂O will destroy the BCl₃ portion while leaving dimethyl sulfide in solution.

References

Notes

External links

* {{Authority control Boron compounds Chlorides Boron halides