Scientists Create Compound With a Single Element

rocketman768 writes "An international team of researchers including scientists at the Carnegie Institution has discovered a new chemical compound that consists of a single element: boron. Chemical compounds are conventionally defined as substances consist of two or more elements, but the researchers found that at high pressure and temperature pure boron can assume two distinct forms that bond together to create a novel 'compound' called boron boride."

I don't understand

[DigitAl56K]

Why is this not an allotrope [wikipedia.org]? I'm not a chemist so excuse me if the answer seems obvious to those with a better understanding.

Na-Na+

[TeknoHog]

In the mid-1990s I studied with the book Chemistry in Context by Hill and Holman. The companion book of experiments and real-world applications had a chapter on anions of alkali metals, and it included a picture of the crystalline self-compound Na-Na+.

Re:Except of course it isn't REALLY that simple...

[Hognoxious]

Ionic compounds like NaCl don't exist as molecules under normal conditions.