Four Decades of Organic Chemistry of closo -Boranes: A Synthetic Toolbox for Constructing Liquid Crystal Materials. A Review

Introduction and transformations of organic functional groups to ten- and twelve-vertex closo -boranes and heteroboranes is reviewed in the context of preparation of liquid crystalline compounds. The review, containing 198 references, is designed as a synthetic manual for materials chemists and focuses on methods for engineering molecules with elongated shapes and variable dipole moments. Several underdeveloped aspects of closo -borane chemistry are identified.