Contact person: Bohumír Grüner
Preparation of anhydrous salts of the B12H122- anion with cations of class I.A and II.A
We developed a method for preparing anhydrous salts of anion B12H122- based on the reaction of complex hydrides MBH4 or M(BH4)2 with Me2S.BH3 in high-boiling heat-carrier medium with higher alkanes that doesn’t react with the components of the system and does not solvate the present cation. We also found that the complex hydrides of boron may be replaced by cheap binary hydrides of the said metals in the process, which is specifically surprising in the use of MgH2 (due to its well-known low reactivity). The newly developed method is more effective than methods used up to now due to the significantly lower reaction temperature, easier management of the reactor’s thermal regime, and high yields of the salts produced. Occurrence of by-products is also eliminated, both in terms of presence of the individual types of lower hydroborate anions and their adducts with the present base, and in terms of the ease of their further elimination from the raw product after the reaction. Compared to the previously described methods it is not necessary to act upon the reaction mixture by water or protic solvent in order to isolate the individual M2B12H12 or MB12H12 salts. The procedure therefore provides high yields of pure anhydrous salts with the aforementioned cations for direct use in electrical engineering, e.g. as solid electrolytes for lithium and magnesium cells. The method is also suitable for producing salts enriched by 10B isotope that are used as a raw material for the production of active substance for boron catchment therapy in oncology.
The utilisation of the result is now in the stage of innovation with gradual introduction into manufacturing. We made a co-ownership contract between the patent originators from ÚACH and Katchem Corporation; the CZ patent is in the stage of preparation for application at ÚPV with a potential extension to a PCT application. The market with the B12H122- salts has been increasing over the past few years. However, it is very hard to predict the volume of contracts and the volume of production