Beryllium hydride

Beryllium hydride is a compound made of beryllium and hydrogen. The chemical formula is . It has a molar mass of around 11.03 g/mol. Unlike other alkaline earth metal hydrides which are ionically bonded, beryllium hydride is considered covalently bonded. This compound is also nonpolar because the chemical structure is linear, which means the dipole moments are in opposite directions meaning they cancel each other out. This compound is also an exception to the octet rule because beryllium is electron-deficient meaning it only has four valence electrons instead of zero or eight.

Formation of beryllium hydride
This compound cannot be directly made from beryllium metal and hydrogen gas. Instead it can be made from the reaction between dimethylberyllium () and lithium aluminium hydride () (first made in 1951), or the more pure sample reaction is beryllium borohydride ()and triphenylphosphine ().

The balanced chemical equation for the triphenylphosphine and beryllium borohydride reaction is:

Category:Beryllium compounds
Category:Metal hydrides