What is Sodium Borohydride?
Sodium borohydride is also popular as sodium tetrahydroborate and it is inorganic in nature and extensive used for organic synthesis process as the reducing agent. The chemical formula for the compound could be given as the NaBH4 with a molecular mass of 37.830 g mol-1 approx. it is formed by sodium cation and boron hydrides anions.
Sodium Borohydride Structure
The compound has a tetrahedral structure where boron is hybridized and its chemical structure could be given as below.
Sodium Borohydride Chemical Formula
The compound is available in free state in the nature and it is prepared at the elevated temperatures in mineral oil medium. The chemical reaction for Sodium borohydride compound is given as below.
B(OCH3)3 + 4NaH → NaBH4 + 3 NaOCH3
Sodium Borohydride Properties
When you would look at the physical properties of the compound then it is available in white to grey color and it can be defined as the crystalline powder too. For the temperature greater than the 70 degree Celsius, it will ignite in the air and soluble in lower alcohols and insoluble in organic solvents.
Further, the compound quickly reacts with the water to form the sodium hydroxide. This is a reducing agent that acts selectively. In the pure state, the compound can react violently with water. The compound is used to reduce the inorganic compound and it is largely used for producing blenching agent from sulfur dioxide to the synthesized gold nanoparticles. It is used by pharmaceutical industries too as an antibiotic. It is toxic by ingestion that may cause skin burns or severe eye burns too.