Heteroborane

Heteroboranes are classes of boranes in which at least one boron atom is replaced by another elements. Like many of the related boranes, these clusters are polyhedra and are similarly classified as Boranes#Chemical [formula and naming conventions|closo-, nido-, arachno-, and hypho-], according to the so-called Polyhedral [skeletal electron pair theory|electron count]. Closo- represents a complete polyhedron, while nido-, arachno- and hypho- stand for polyhedrons that are missing one, two and three vertices.
Besides carbon, other elements can also be included in the heteroborane molecules as well, such as Si, N, P, As, Sb, O, S, Se and Te, either alone or in combination.
Structurally, some heteroboranes can be derived from the icosahedral Dodecaborate| anion via formal replacement of its BH fragments with isoelectronic, or fragments, e.g., closo-1- and closo-1,2-, closo-1,2- or closo-1-.
Heteroboranes are used in various fields, such as drug discovery, imaging, and nanotechnology.