Scientists Create Compound With a Single Element 163
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."
Eh? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Eh? (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Eh? (Score:5, Funny)
I think my head just exploded. Compound, of one element. What next transparent aluminum?
Geez, get with the program! Next, an element made of two different atomic molecules.
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Done. It's called a Bose-Einstein Condensate.
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Consequently, we're going to have to nuke you from orbit (as this is the only way to be sure).
Re:Eh? (Score:4, Funny)
Well, he did say he only THINKS his head exploded.
By the theory of Occam's Razor, it's much likely he's just delusional...
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Consequently, we're going to have to nuke you from orbit (as this is the only way to be sure).
Can't do that, Luke. Obama is trying to ban those now, along with the rest of the space program [slashdot.org].
Re:Eh? (Score:5, Funny)
Oxyboron.
Best. Tag. Ever.
I _actually_ blew snot over my keyboard laughing when I saw that.
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Iron Ferrite?
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>>I think my head just exploded. Compound, of one element. What next transparent aluminum?
I think most people don't realize is that Boron is the mythic "Fifth Element" we hear so much about in the films.
It can do anything.
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Milla Jovavich is carved out of Boron? I don't believe it!
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sexy, sexy boron.
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Up next: desu desu desium
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Scientists have also found a way to pressurize and raise the temperature of a shoe and make a pair from a single shoe.
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Maybe we should try to figure out all the basic stuff first... just a feeling in my guts.
Speak for yourself (Score:2)
We're intimate with dilithium crystals??
I don't understand (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:I don't understand (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
That's exactly what I was wondering. The title made me wonder "what? graphite? diamonds?"
Re:I don't understand (Score:5, Informative)
Because an allotrope is a different arrangement of the same element on its own.
You can find a diamond and you can also find graphite.
This would be like a graphite diamond.
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At last, a wedding ring you can make notes with! There will be a lot of happy girls this year.
Re:I don't understand (Score:5, Informative)
Reading the intro paragraph of the article, I have an answer.
This is an IONIC compound. Someone felt that it was an unnecessary or unimportant distinction to make.
It's the first IONIC compound to be composed of only one element.
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Isn't that what things like O2 are, also? Or am I remembering my high school chemistry incorrectly?
Re:I don't understand (Score:5, Informative)
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Yeah, I figured that out when I read further down in the comments.
But thanks for explaining it. You did a better job than some of the others.
Except of course it isn't REALLY that simple... (Score:5, Informative)
Not to say you are at all wrong, it is a good explanation, but the distinction between 'ionic' and 'covalent' bonds is really one of a matter of degree between 2 extremes.
At the one extreme we have single element compounds like H2 or O2 in which the electronegativity of the component atoms is (by definition) equal and thus have an even charge distribution and are entirely covalent. This is the simplest case.
At the other extreme we have substances like NaCl which are made up of atoms with extremely different electronegativities. However there is no such thing as a purely 'ionic' bond. Even in an extremely polar molecule like NaCl the charge distribution isn't ENTIRELY Na+1 and Cl-1. It very nearly is, but not quite.
MOST compounds are far less clear cut. Even H2O's bonds, which are fairly polar and is composed of 2 species with very different electronegativity the bond is generally characterized as having both an ionic and a covalent character.
So, our boron boride is also going to be a compound which is not going to be entirely clearly either ionic nor covalent.
The real problem is that these terms only signify useful generalizations about how chemical species behave. While chemistry CAN be reduced to physics in a reasonably straightforward way in principle, the reality is that most of the terms and most of the ways chemists ordinarily think about chemistry is a set of 'rules of thumb' which are based as much on observation and valued as much for their general utility as they are based on precise formulations of fundamental laws and processes. Even the notion of 'compound' is really to a certain extent a convenience and necessarily gets a bit fuzzy at the 'edges'.
Re:Except of course it isn't REALLY that simple... (Score:4, Insightful)
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You're saying that there's no such thing as table salt. This is obviously false.
Compounds with strong ionic bonds tend to disassociate completely in water forming the constituent ions (completely being as previously indicated - not really complete).
However, the moment that they leave the water, they're back to what they were - full molecules again.
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Compounds with strong ionic bonds tend to disassociate completely in water forming the constituent ions
When did the saltwater oceans explode in a chemical reaction with sodium and produce a massive cloud of poisonous chlorine gas in your world?
(Sucks to be Utah.)
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I wasn't trying to be a dick, I was trying to understand what you were saying, since you were less than clear in your statement.
Matrix, not molecules.
An ionic matrix is still composed of molecules. The bonding between them is created by the electrostatic effect of a respective nuclei on the electronics of surrounding atoms or molecules.
Ions, not molecules.
Fair enough, mist
Actually no (Score:3, Insightful)
In a crystal of table salt there are no molecules. No one Na+ is associated with any one given Cl-. The crystal is made up of alternating Na and Cl atoms, sort of like a checkerboard.
Highly ionic crystalline solids are compounds, but not composed of molecules, and in fact NaCl is NEVER a molecule. In aqueous solution it dissociates entirely. If you melt it you still have a situation where the various atoms move freely in the now liquid substance.
Very few highly ionic substances, salts, even CAN be vaporized
Actually he is quite correct (Score:2)
Extremely polar molecules like NaCl, salts, are so polar that they hardly share electrons at all. Thus the vast majority of the forces that hold them together are purely electrical charge, as opposed to the case of covalance where the bond is stabilized due to the formation of an energy level which favors stability.
In these types of compounds there ARE no molecules per-se. There is no one Na+ that is associated with a specific Cl-.
Still, the original point was that chemical bonds are understood to have both
Re:Excuse me? (Score:5, Funny)
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Reduced to physics? Reduced to physics!! Grr.
If its being 'reduced' to physics, then is the rest of it unscientific alchemy?
Mathematics. [xkcd.com]
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That is the very thing that separates math from physics. We can declare that 1 + 1 = 3 is an axiom and then derive a whole bunch of things from this within what GÃdel's Incompleteness Theorems show to be necessary.
Mathematics exists in a realm completely separated from anything else, and it is very much like programming except for that programming is by necessity discrete and math allows you to deal with continuous things such as geometry. You could program a physics engine with completely different la
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No, I'm just saying that in the symmetry broken state the character of the bonds between the negatively and positively charged boron atoms is unlikely to be purely characterizable as either 'ionic' or 'covalent'. It may be enough one or the other to make sense to call it one thing or the other, but the two terms are generalizations of the extremes of a continuum where bonds in any given actual compound partake of both characters to a certain extent.
That was why I brought up the example of water, which is on
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From TFA, actually, Boron Boride is composed of two separate molecules, both of which are allotropes.
So, it's not really BB, but B2B7 or so... I'm less interested in reading TFA again, but you should be able to look it up yourself.
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No, O2 is a covalent bond, I believe.
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No. But Ozone Dioxide would be if it existed.
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The difference here is that same-element covalent molecules are common place, like O2, Cl2, H2, N2, etc. A same-element ionic compound, however, is new.
Re:I don't understand (Score:5, Informative)
AFAIK, an allotrope is just a different spatial arrangement of atoms without any transfer of electrons. However, in this case, the arrangement is such that there is a transfer of charge from one set of atoms to another.
From TFA,
How can an element be ionic? Classical chemistry textbooks indicate that charge transfer occurs when atoms have different electronegativities and this automatically disqualifies pure elements as possible ionic phases. Boron finds a surprising solution to this problem â" its new structure contains two very different types of nanoclusters, B12 icosahedra (blue in the figure above) and B2 dumbbells (orange in the figure above). The electronic structures of these two clusters are very different â" in fact, the dependence of electronic properties on the size of the cluster is well known and is the main idea of nanotechnology. Electronegativities of the B12 icosahedra and B2 pairs are different, and this causes charge redistribution and the emergence of partial ionicity in this elemental structure.
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This one is a compound made from two different forms of the same element. First of its kind.
Boring... (Score:5, Funny)
Sorry, had to say it. :)
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Boring Boride?
Oblig. Quote (Score:5, Funny)
"Nobody does it like molten boron"
http://theinfosphere.org/images/thumb/7/78/Molten_Boron.jpg/200px-Molten_Boron.jpg [theinfosphere.org]
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Oblig. CORRECT Quote (Score:2)
Would be "Nobody doesn't like molten boron!"
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Not if you copy the link and then paste into your browser's address field. That way there's no referrer.
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Re:Puzzled.. (Score:5, Informative)
they're covalent, not ionic.
Re:Puzzled.. (Score:5, Informative)
Whats the difference between that, and say, N2 or O2? Aren't those also compounds of a single element?
With oxygen and nitrogen the two atoms are identical for all intents and purposes. They share electrons evenly. In this case you have boron atoms that are giving up electrons and boron atoms that are accepting them to reach a stable state. So they're behaving differently, rather than the same.
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I'm pretty sure you can probably get those two to bind together with some work. What I'd like to know is if you could get two of them to stick to an oxygen atom and sort of share their electrons amongst them. Honestly - is that bond even possible? Well, I suppose by now someone has managed it.
Water? (Score:2)
Which you've described reasonably well. 2 H's and an O will quite happily share electrons and come out of your tap too. That bond is not an 'even split' though, the oxygen holds tighter to the electrons and gets more than its 'fair share' of them.
Water is somewhat 'sticky' (viscous) because of this fact. The O part of it has a bit of a negative charge, and the H parts a bit of a positive charge, so it is a 'polar' molecule and the H side of one water sticks a bit to the O side of the next one. This gives wa
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Well, thanks for the well thought out response. It's a shame that my post was purely a sarcastic reply to its parent.
Eh, what would /. be (Score:2)
without sarcasm? ;)
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CNET?
BTW - I like your current sig. I'm going to use that at the first appropriate opportunity and not credit you. In direct violation of the ownership notice at the bottom. I'm such a bad boy.
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LOL, go ahead, I am pretty sure I stole it from someone else, but then they didn't credit it either, so...
Well, H2 (Score:2)
Common hydrogen gas, is 2 hydrogen atoms sharing TWO electrons. It is a reasonably stable and entirely covalent compound. That is you cannot say that one hydrogen has BOTH electrons and the other hydrogen has none. Each one has a 'share' of both electrons at once, and that share is exactly equal.
The difference with this boron boride is that some of the boron atoms have a bigger share of the electrons than others, which is at the very least pretty unusual for a compound with only one type of element in it.
By
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It sounds like it's not actually the boron atoms that configure themselves differently, but rather groups of boron atoms. So you don't really have a boron-boron compound (Chem 101 is still technically right), but more of a boron allotrope 1 - boron allotrope 2 combination. Kind of like a single element alloy, or a semiconductor doped with itself.
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You have to have electro negativity charge difference > 2 in order to be considered ionic.
Eh, its a rule of thumb (Score:2)
All bonds between different species are at least PARTLY 'ionic' in character. At least until now though NO bonds between like species have demonstrated ANY ionic character (at least that I know of). So it is interesting.
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As I'm sure has been repeated, it appears that this is a compound of Boron where the Boron exists in two different covalently bonded structures, with different electronegativities. This results in the two structures forming ionic bonds.
Big Deal.... (Score:2, Funny)
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I know that you're joking but...
That's definitely not going to work. It's highly unlikely that anything with fewer electrons than Li is going to be capable of doing that sort of sorcery. Doing it with Boron is kind of neat.
And on top of that it's unlikely that an odd number of atoms is going to work without the atoms having an even number of electrons.
Of course it's been a long time since I took chemistry so I might be wrong.
Related (Score:5, Funny)
Boron Boride, the nobleman? This discovery is an abomination, like the Boride of Frankenstein. And isn't Boron the cousin of the famous Ukranian trumpet player, Boris Boride? I know, my jokes are so bad you must think I'm a total stupid boron. What happens when you drill the surface of something? You boron it. What happens when the drill goes out of control and starts flopping all over the place and you're stuck on top? Boron bo-ride!
Ok I'll stop.
*OT* Re: Karma (Score:4, Funny)
Finally out of Bad Karma hell, lets see how long THAT lasts.
You won't help the situation by joking around (no Karma for Funny), you need to bash Microsoft or something.
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Or haxxor Cowboy Neil to make it possible to get karma from funny.
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Or haxxor Cowboy Neil to make it possible to get karma from funny.
How about Boron Neil or Cowboy Boron?
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Well, I for one, am looking forward to your bor-oncore later.
all you are doing (Score:2, Funny)
is compounding your embarassment
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Oh crud. I have mod points and already posted to this thread. Hopefully someone gives you some +funnies.
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I'm thinking Spider Robinson probably isn't fearing for his job right now.
Miswritten summary (Score:5, Informative)
Frankly, the article is interesting enough without mangling it in the summary.
This is the first ionic crystal to consist of only one element. As a compound, by definition, contains two elements, it's not a compound. A boron ionic crystal is substantially different from, say, the multiple allotropes of carbon, though.
However, this is a solely theoretical crystal -- it hasn't been synthesized.
Re:Miswritten summary (Score:4, Informative)
Actually it has been synthesized. The structure was determined using a computational method, though. In other words, they couldn't use standard techniques to interpret the x-ray diffraction data and had to use the evolutionary structure prediction method mentioned in the paper.
What I find kind of amazing is the news article mentions a Vickers hardness of 50 GPa. The journal article doesn't mention anything about that, unless it is somewhere in the supplementary materials, but anyway, if the news article estimated correctly based on the reported phase transformation pressures...that's pretty damn hard!
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Isn't it basically just the same as regular Boron (49GPa)?
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Honestly, I'm not sure how to interpret these things because hardness can mean so many different things. But, as the article mentioned, until now (actually a few years ago) an elemental Boron hasn't been known. All known polymorphs had been found to be contaminated with impurities.
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"Insightful" :)
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Is that boron boride in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
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Re:Don't be a boron ! (Score:5, Funny)
Because boron boride is actually the cure for cancer. You'll see.
Yes, first you need to pressurize the patient to 100,000 atmospheres. Tada! You're no longer going to die of cancer.
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Yes, first you need to pressurize the patient to 100,000 atmospheres. Tada! You're no longer going to die of cancer.
And they'll be able to neatly bury you in an Altoids tin
The Fifth Element (Score:2)
Because boron boride is actually the cure for cancer. You'll see.
It is the fifth element, you know.
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Because every new vapor-ware discovery will cure cancer, make free power, and cause your re-productive organs to tingle.
Remember, when you gaze into the boron boride crystal, the boron boride crystal gazes back into you.
Boron Boride Boring (Score:2)
Oblig. Family Guy reference: (Score:2)
Boron Boride: Buzz Killington's [wikipedia.org] little brother...
Na-Na+ (Score:5, Interesting)
More info on sodium natride (Score:2)
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Na-Na+ Na-Na+
Na-Na+ Na-Na+
He He He
B-
New theoretical method? (Score:2)
In California it causes cancer... (Score:2)
I bet California has already declared it to be cancer-causing..
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It's a shame I can't mod this post redundant. It would have been funny.
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You should have said something. I've got mod points right now and you could have borrowed one. :-)
Seriously, though, just 'cause there's no "-1, horribly bad pun" mod isn't an excuse to mod without knowing the meanings of the different available ones. They could have modded me "overrated" and I'd have had nothing about which to complain . I might not have agreed, but could have accepted it as an honest difference of opinion.
This post could be quite legitimately modded down as "offtopic", but, since it is
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I thought the slogan was was "Nobody doesn't like molten boron", not "Nobody does it like molten boron".
?
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Actually, it's pretty interesting. He used a genetic algorithm to find the theoretical structure.