Adv. Inorg. Chem. 73, 73-121 (2019)

DOI: 10.1016/bs.adioch.2018.10.003

The beryllium bond

This chapter describes the strong and weak interactions of beryllium to form covalent bonds and beryllium bonds. We start from the challenging description of bonding in the beryllium dimer, trimer and larger clusters, followed by a brief review of other beryllium-beryllium bonds and organoberyllium compounds. Thereafter, the beryllium bond is defined and characterized in binary complexes, and it's very strong effects on the acid/base properties of the attached molecules reported. The last sections discuss the effect of the beryllium bond on reactivity and cooperative effects of compounds containing several beryllium bonds.