Boron

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Boron
General Info
Atomic Symbol	B
Atomic Number	5
Atomic Weight	10.811 g/mol10.811 amu
Chemical series	Metalloids
Appearance	Black/Brown
Group, Period, Block	13, 2, p
Electron configuration	1s2, 2s2, 2p1
Electrons per shell	2, 3
CAS number	[7440-42-8]
Physical properties
Phase
Density	g/cm3
Melting point	warning.png"" is not a number.
Boiling point	warning.png"" is not a number.
Isotopes of Boron
iso NA half-life DT DE (MeV) DP is stable with neutrons.
All properties are for STP unless otherwise stated.

Boron comes from the Arabic word buraq, meaning "white." Its atoms are less complex than other elements, being one of the simplest atoms with fewer neutrons and protons. Boron's chemical symbol is B, its atomic number is 5, and it occurs naturally as 80% ¹¹B and 20% ¹⁰B giving Boron its average atomic weight of 10.81. Because it only has three electrons to work with, (it's electron configuration is 1s²2s²2p¹) the ion is nonpolarizable. It is also used in reactor control rods because of Boron's nuclear properties, not because of its chemistry. Boron is also found in an assortment of minerals all related to Borax and Sodium tetraborate. The naturally occurring ore of Boron, Borax, has the same name in French and German as in English, but the element is called bor instead in those languages. Boron is a comparatively scarce element in the earth's crust making up 0.001% of the earth's crust.

Contents 1 Properties 2 Occurrences 3 Uses 4 Isotopes 5 History 6 Boric Acid 7 Related References 8 See Also

Properties

Brown amorphous boron is made from chemical reactions and its Boron atoms are randomly bonded together without long range order. There are quite a variety of different types of Boron. One type of Boron is called crystalline boron and is very hard with a high melting point. This boron crystal is also analogous to carbon crystals (diamond), but boron has a lot of different structure shapes because of it's 3-bond shape. This requires the atoms to be asymmetrically bonded in a 3-dimensional area. Two other types of boron called crystalline/metallic boron can convey infrared light. Metallic boron is a weak electrical conductor but at high temperatures it is very good conductor. Chemically boron has an inadequate amount of electrons, and it's also an electrophile. Boron is unique, being the least electronegative non-metal. This means that when it has any kind of reaction it almost always loses electrons.

Boron Nitride is a kind of material where the nitrogen makes up for boron's electron deficiency. This Boron nitride is sometimes used to make super hard crystals. These crystals are next after the diamond in hardness and similar to diamonds, boron nitride is a fantastic conductor of heat and is also an electric insulator.

Not only is boron nitride similar to diamonds but it is also a bit similar to carbon and the structural and lubricating traits of graphite. When boron nitride is made of layers of fused hexagonal sheets which are placed in registry (which means that they are placed exactly on top of one another) the polar B-N bonds obstruct electron transfer so that this kind of boron nitride isn't an electrical conductor.

Some of the greatest economically important compounds of boron are Orthoboric acid (H₃BO₃) or boric acid, Sodium tetraboratepentahydrate, and Sodium tetraborate decahydrate or borax. Boric acid or orthoboric acid in used in the making of eye drops, textile fiberglass, and flat panel displats. Sodium tetraboratepentahydrate is abundantly used in making sodium perborate bleach and insulating fiberglass. Borax or Sodium tetraborate decahydrate is used in the production of anti-corrosion systems and adhesives. [1]

Occurrences

Boron doesn't appear in nature. It is produced mostly by the U.S. and by Turkey. Kernite and borax ore are both found in the Mojave Desert in California and are important sources of the element. Boron is found in minerals or compounds such as borax, boric acid, colemanite, kernite, ulexite and borates. Boric acid is found in spring waters made by volcanoes and ulexite is a mineral formed from evaporation of water containing boron and calcium. Ulexite forms fibrous "cotton tuft" crystals which sometimes are aligned in a vein. If the Ulexite (also called TV rock) is sliced and polished perpendicularly to the fibers it can transmit images like a naturally occuring fiber optic.

Boron is not an easy element to prepare and is especially difficult to purify. However pure Boron can be prepared by chemically reducing volatile boron halogenides with hydrogen at high temperatures. In 1997 crystalline boron (99% pure) cost about US$5 per gram and amorphous boron cost about US$2 per gram.[2]

Uses

Boron has hundreds of uses much like other elements. Its an important plant micro-nutrient that helps immensely in fertilization and in strengthening the plant cell walls. Boris acid is used in textile items because they are nontoxic flame resistance and are used to treat cotton fiber. Boric acid is more commonly used as an insecticide against ants and cockroaches. Boron has many potential uses to the medical world and is currently being researched in boron neutron capture therapy and drug delivery, and it also shows great promise in treating arthritis. Other Boranic compounds are used to preserve wood and are more suitable in this way because they have such a low toxicity.[3]

Isotopes

Main Article: Isotopes

There are 13 known isotopes Boron. The shortest-lived one is ⁷B, which decays through proton and alpha decay. Boron only has two naturally constant-stable isotopes, ¹¹B and ¹⁰B. The fractionation of Boron is limited by the exchange reactions of Boron B(OH)3 and B(OH)4. [4]

History

Arabic Buraq from Persian and Burah from Turkish Bor are compounds or boron and they have been known of for thousands of years. In Egypt when they used to mummify bodies they would natron which contained borates and other common salts as well. In China, around 300 AD, borax glazes were used and in Ancient Rome boron compounds were used in glass-making. The element itself was not segregated until 1808. The 3 men to do this were Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, Humphry Davy, and Louis Jacques Thénard. They were able to purify it to about 50 percent purity by reducing the boric acid with sodium or magnesium. The three men didn't recognize it as an element but the man who did was Jöns Jakob Berzelius in 1824. And the man who was first to purify boron was W. Weintraub in 1909. Boron was thought to be unuseful to the human body until research suggested different in 1989.

Boric Acid

Boric acid was first made or equipped by Wilhelm Homberg in 1652-1715. He did this by the action of mineral salts and from borax. Boric acid's salts are found in plants, almost all fruits, and in sea-water. The acid is found among certain volcanic areas like Nevada, Tuscany, and the Lipari islands. It is soluble in boiling water and when it's heated above 170 degrees Celsius in dehydrates and forms metaboric acid, HBO₂. This metaboric acid is a white colored cubic crystalline solid that is somewhat soluble in water and melts when near 236 degrees Celsius. When it is heated even higher above 300 degrees Celsius in dehydrates even more and it turns into tetraboric acid or pyroboric acid, H2B4O7. Further heating leads to boron trioxide, Boric acid can refer to any of these compounds. Boric acid is sometimes also called orthoboric acid and boracic acid. It is in the form of a white powder and it easily dissolves in water. Boric acid is a more mild acid and it is most commonly used as and flame retardant, antiseptic, in nuclear power plants to control the fission rate of uranium, insecticide, and as a precursor of other chemical compounds. When boric acid occurs as a mineral it is sometimes called sassolite. It has the chemical formula of H₃BO₃, and it's sometimes written B(OH)3. The biggest source of it is in California. When boric acid is produced it is mainly from borate minerals when it reacts with sulfuric acid.

Related References

• Boron image
• Borax crystals
• Boron Properties
• Isotopes
• Element Boron
• Boron Intro

See Also

• Periodic Table of Elements
• Elements
• Atoms
• Chemistry