Metal-rich metallaboranes: Clusters containing triply and tetra bridging borylene and boride units

Abstract Metal-rich metallaborane clusters, having triply and tetra bridging borylenes, and multicentred boride units are demanding renewed interest because of their diverse reactivity and unique structural features. Recent years have witnessed significant progress in the field of metal-rich metallaborane clusters. In spite of high instability of free borylene species, modern synthetic strategies utilizing transition metals have enabled to the isolation of borylene species, particularly as triply bridging borylene species. On the other hand, naked boron ‘boride’ has been encapsulated inside different types of transition metal and metallaborane clusters. The unique bonding ability of the boron of borylene and boride with multiple transition metals afforded a series of metal-rich metallaboranes. In this review, we have discussed the history of the synthesis of metal-rich clusters containing triply bridging borylene and boride moieties and their structure, bonding, and electron count. The reactivity of these metal-rich metallaboranes toward various substrates has also been discussed.