What are hydrides?

1 Answer
Truong-Son N.
Aug 24, 2017

Hydrides, or more likely what you mean is metal hydrides, are compounds containing a metal and an H:− ligand. An H:− is a hydride.

The hydrogen atom has a significantly higher electronegativity than many transition metals, so we can treat the interaction as a complete electron transfer (i.e. ~100% ionic character).

Some example metal hydrides are:

  • NaH (sodium hydride), used in organic chemistry often to remove an H+ from acetylene for reaction with alkyl halides, a C−C bond-making reaction.

  • HCo(CO)4 (tetracarbonylhydridocobalt(I)), a trigonal bipyramidal transition metal complex.

![https://upload.wikimedia.org/](useruploads.socratic.org)

  • LiAlH4 (lithium aluminum hydride), a very strong reducing agent used in organic chemistry. It reacts sufficiently with carboxylic acids, amides, and esters, whereas NaBH4 (sodium borohydride) would be insufficiently reactive.
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