Methyl camouflage in the ten-vertex closo-dicarbaborane(10) series. Isolation of closo-1,6-R2C2B8Me8 (R = H and Me) and their monosubstituted analogues.

Reported are procedures leading to the first types of methyl camouflaged dicarbadecaboranes with fewer than eleven vertices. The compounds contain the closo-1,6-C2B8 scaffolding inside the egg-shaped hepta - decamethyl sheath, which imparts unusually high air and solvolytic stability to all of these compounds.