Talk:Boron trifluoride
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[edit] Valuable
The first paragraph says:
- "...a valuable Lewis acid..."
does "valuable" have a specific chemical meaning, or does this just mean that it's costly to produce or extract from natural sources and therefore "valuable" in a monetary sense. Not really critical to the meaning of the article, I'm just curious. Thx. Zero sharp 19:32, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
"Valuable" here means that BF3 is a USEFUL Lewis acid. It is used in myriad applications, from catalyzing aldol reactions to removal of a variety of protecting groups. This is a common term in organic chemistry, though as you point out it can be misleading. Shultzc (talk) 03:13, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Structure
My chemistry book explicitly says this: Image:BF3 illustration.png
I'm a bit confused on this. Juraj5 (talk) 10:44, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
- This is straightforward. BF3 is planar, not pyramidal. Unlike NH3, BF3 only has six valence electrons around its central atom, all of which are in B-F bonds. There is no lone pair on boron, whereas nitrogen in ammonia has a lone pair, which repels the three N-H bonds, resulting in a pyramidal molecule.
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- Thank you on your clarification! In this case, why is the article page showing BF3 having pyramidal structure? Juraj5 (talk) 18:30, 5 May 2008 (UTC)
- It doesn't. The image in the article shows a planar molecule, with on B-F bond in the plane, one coming out towards you and one going inwards away from you - but all in the same plane. This 2D image exactly follows the 3D image to its right. By contrast, the images at ammonia show a pyramidal molecule.
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- The fact that you're confused goes to show that structural formulae are confusing to the uninitiated. That's why I spend most of my time adding 3D images of molecules, because they're a lot easier to decipher, and people with little formal training in chemistry can easily understand what they mean.
