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A boronic acid is a compound related to boric acid in which one of the three hydroxyl groups is replaced by an alkyl or aryl group. As a compound containing a carbon–boron bond, members of this class thus belong to the larger class of organoboranes. Boronic acids act as Lewis acids. Their unique feature is that they are capable of forming reversible covalent complexes with sugars, amino acids, hydroxamic acids, etc. or occasionally substituted Lewis base donors ]. The pKa of a boronic acid is ~9, but they can form tetrahedral boronate complexes with pKa ~7. They are occasionally used in the area of molecular recognition to bind to saccharides for fluorescent detection or selective transport of saccharides across membranes.
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