Hydrides

Classifying Hydrides

Under suitable conditions, dihydrogen combines with almost every element except the noble gases to form binary compounds called hydrides. For an element E, these are written $EH_x$ (e.g. $MgH_2$) or $E_mH_n$ (e.g. $B_2H_6$).

Hydrides fall into three broad classes, based on the type of bonding involved:

1. Ionic (saline) hydrides
2. Covalent (molecular) hydrides …