Several plutonium borides can be formed by direct combination of plutonium and boron powders in an inert atmosphere at reduced pressure.

PuB was reported to form at 1200 °C with a range of 40–70% boron. It supposedly has a Pu-B bond length of 2.46 Å and the NaCl structure, as do TiB, ZrB and HfB.^[1] The existence of PuB was contested later based on several arguments.^[2]

PuB₂ is formed at 800 °C and has a similar structure to most other metal diborides.

At 1200 °C with 70–85% boron, mixtures of PuB₄ and PuB₆ are formed, with more of the latter as the temperature increases; PuB₄ has the tetragonal structure (same as UB₄), and PuB₆ has cubic structure, same as all hexaborides (CaB₆, LaB₆ etc.).^[1]

The most remarkable plutonium boride is arguably PuB₁₀₀. Its existence^[2] demonstrates the importance of contamination in boride research because as little as 1% of an impurity is capable of changing its crystal structure.

References

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