Re: Why is there no dimers in Boron Chloride BCl3?

I forwarded this question to a colleague, Dr. Ihsan Boustani, from U. Wuppertal in Germany. His answer is below.

Dear Rick,

Boron has only three valence electrons. As soon as these three electrons are occupied by the three chloride atoms (having closed shells) in form of ionic bonds, there is no more any electron at the center boron to make any covalent bond with another boron. Chloride atoms have closed shells now and behave like rare gas atoms.

Regards

Ihsan