How is sodium tetraborohydride (NaBH4) made?

[jacknife360]

Just wondering how NaBH4 is made, as it is used prolifically in organic chemistry for reducing?

[YT2095]

the 1`st part of the formula reminded me of Borax, so I used this search: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-10,GGLD:en&q=%22NaBH4%22+borax

 

 

this may help, there are other ways, but this one seems pretty simple

 

http://asm.confex.com/asm/ms2004/techprogram/paper_2960.htm

[jacknife360]

cheers mon

[budullewraagh]

NaBH4...well, you can have fun doing this in a few ways.

 

one extremely dangerous way is to pass diborane gas over heated sodium metal in an otherwise inert atmosphere. just try not to die or anything.

 

you could heat boron, sodium and hydrogen gas under pressure in a hydrogen+inert gas atmosphere... just try not to die or anything.

 

now, let's get into the more abstract theoretical realms...

i suppose if you were to superheat sodium borate in a highly pressurized hydrogen atmosphere with a huge excess of hydrogen, you could pull it off, yielding perhaps sodium hydroxide...

 

boric acid with sodium hydride would work if in similar conditions...

[Gilded]

I've always thought that diborane is at least an awesome looking molecule (didn't recall it being a gas in RT though, but now I checked and indeed it is), good to see that it can be used for something fun and extremely dangerous.

 

Edit: It also appears Finnish Chemicals sells quite a variety of sodium borohydride products. Yay!

( http://www.finnishchemicals.com/finnishchemicals/finnchem_4203500200.html )

[budullewraagh]

the boranes are to be loved. they're all so electron-deficient