Single-pot synthesis of zinc nanoparticles, borane (BH3) and closo-dodecaborate (B12H12)2 using LiBH4 under mild conditionsElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Details about synthetic procedure, materials and instrumentation; TEM, SEM and FESEM pictures; NMR and FT-IR spectra. CCDC 926150. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI: 10.1039/c3dt00092c

Reduction of ZnCl 2 using LiBH 4 in mesitylene yielded zinc nanoparticles (Zn-NPs), borane (BH 3 ) and closo -dodecaborate (B 12 H 12 ) 2 . The BH 3 evolved gas was trapped as Ph 3 P:BH 3 adduct while closo -(B 12 H 12 ) 2 was extracted by methanol and characterized from spectral data. A single reaction yielded three useful products, viz. , Zn nano particles, BH 3 gas and a salt of (B 12 H 12 ) 2 .