Boron trioxide explained

Boron trioxide or diboron trioxide is the oxide of boron with the formula . It is a colorless transparent solid, almost always glassy (amorphous), which can be crystallized only with great difficulty. It is also called boric oxide or boria. It has many important industrial applications, chiefly in ceramics as a flux for glazes and enamels and in the production of glasses.

Structure

Boron trioxide has three known forms, one amorphous and two crystalline.

Amorphous form

The amorphous form (g-) is by far the most common. It is thought to be composed of boroxol rings which are six-membered rings composed of alternating 3-coordinate boron and 2-coordinate oxygen.

Because of the difficulty of building disordered models at the correct density with many boroxol rings, this view was initially controversial, but such models have recently been constructed and exhibit properties in excellent agreement with experiment. It is now recognized, from experimental and theoretical studies, that the fraction of boron atoms belonging to boroxol rings in glassy is somewhere between 0.73 and 0.83, with 0.75 = 3/4 corresponding to a 1:1 ratio between ring and non-ring units. The number of boroxol rings decays in the liquid state with increasing temperature.

Crystalline α form

The crystalline form (α-) is exclusively composed of BO₃ triangles. It crystal structure was initially believed to be the enantiomorphic space groups P3₁(#144) and P3₂(#145), like γ-glycine; but was later revised to the enantiomorphic space groups P3₁21(#152) and P3₂21(#154) in the trigonal crystal system, like α-quartz

Crystallization of α- from the molten state at ambient pressure is strongly kinetically disfavored (compare liquid and crystal densities). It can be obtained with prologued annealing of the amorphous solid ~200 °C under at least 10 kbar of pressure.

Crystalline β form

The trigonal network undergoes a coesite-like transformation to monoclinic β- at several gigapascals (9.5 GPa).

Preparation

Boron trioxide is produced by treating borax with sulfuric acid in a fusion furnace. At temperatures above 750 °C, the molten boron oxide layer separates out from sodium sulfate. It is then decanted, cooled and obtained in 96–97% purity.

Another method is heating boric acid above ~300 °C. Boric acid will initially decompose into steam, (H₂O_(g)) and metaboric acid (HBO₂) at around 170 °C, and further heating above 300 °C will produce more steam and diboron trioxide. The reactions are:

H₃BO₃ → HBO₂ + H₂O

2 HBO₂ → + H₂O

Boric acid goes to anhydrous microcrystalline in a heated fluidized bed. Carefully controlled heating rate avoids gumming as water evolves.

Boron oxide will also form when diborane (B₂H₆) reacts with oxygen in the air or trace amounts of moisture:

2B₂H₆(g) + 3O₂(g) → 2(s) + 6H₂(g)

B₂H₆(g) + 3H₂O(g) → (s) + 6H₂(g)

Reactions

Molten boron oxide attacks silicates. Containers can be passivated internally with a graphitized carbon layer obtained by thermal decomposition of acetylene.

Applications

• Major component of borosilicate glass
• Fluxing agent for glass and enamels
• An additive used in glass fibres (optical fibres)
• The inert capping layer in the Liquid Encapsulation Czochralski process for the production of gallium arsenide single crystal
• As an acid catalyst in organic synthesis
• As a starting material for the production of other boron compounds, such as boron carbide

See also

• Boron suboxide
• Boric acid
• Sassolite
• Tris(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl) borate

References

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External links

• National Pollutant Inventory: Boron and compounds
• Australian Government information
• US NIH hazard information. See NIH.
• Material Safety Data Sheet
• CDC - NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards - Boron oxide

Notes and References

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2. I.Vishnevetsky and M.Epstein (2015): "Solar carbothermic reduction of alumina, magnesia and boria under vacuum". Solar Energy, volume 111, pages 236-251
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4. Ferlat. G.. Seitsonen. A. P.. Lazzeri. M.. Mauri. F.. Hidden polymorphs drive vitrification in B₂O₃. Nature Materials Letters. 11. 11. 925–929. 2012. 10.1038/NMAT3416. 22941329. 1209.3482. 2012NatMa..11..925F. 11567458.
5. Hung. I.. etal. Determination of the bond-angle distribution in vitreous B₂O₃ by rotation (DOR) NMR spectroscopy. Journal of Solid State Chemistry. 2009. 182. 9. 2402–2408. 10.1016/j.jssc.2009.06.025. 2009JSSCh.182.2402H.
6. Soper. A. K.. Boroxol rings from diffraction data on vitreous boron trioxide. J. Phys.: Condens. Matter. 2011. 23. 36. 365402. 10.1088/0953-8984/23/36/365402. 21865633. 2011JPCM...23.5402S. 5291179 .
7. Joo. C.. etal. The ring structure of boron trioxide glass. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids. 2000. 261. 1–3. 282–286. 10.1016/s0022-3093(99)00609-2. 2000JNCS..261..282J.
8. Zwanziger. J. W.. The NMR response of boroxol rings: a density functional theory study. Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. 2005. 27. 1–2. 5–9. 10.1016/j.ssnmr.2004.08.004. 15589722.
9. Micoulaut. M.. The structure of vitreous B₂O₃ obtained from a thermostatistical model of agglomeration. Journal of Molecular Liquids. 1997. 71. 2–3. 107–114. 10.1016/s0167-7322(97)00003-2.
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