Talk:Hexaborane(12)

Divalent hydrogen?

When I went to school, hydrogen had a valency of 1. But the diagram shows four of the hydrogen atoms bonded to two other atoms. Presuming the diagram is correct, it would be good to have some explanation of how it manages to break free of this limit in order to form this compound. @Smokefoot: I see you contributed the diagram – are you able to shed some light? — Smjg (talk) 10:11, 1 September 2018 (UTC)

@Smjg:For many compounds, hydrogen bridges two, three, and sometimes several elements. Many borane clusters exhibit this bonding. Another place where bridging H is routine is in interstitial hydrides (H absorbed into metals). The catch is that the lines to H do not signify two electrons. Five- and six-bonded carbon is also pretty common BTW. --Smokefoot (talk) 14:02, 1 September 2018 (UTC)

@Smokefoot: I see. I suspect many of us are familiar with only two kinds of chemical bond: ionic and covalent. Do you know what kind of bond this is? Does it have a WP article? — Smjg (talk) 22:06, 16 October 2018 (UTC)

Three-center two-electron bond --Smokefoot (talk) 22:26, 16 October 2018 (UTC)