Crystal structure of AlPCl8

Abstract

The crystal structure of aluminium phospho-rus chloride (systematic name: phospho-rus tetra-chloride tetra-chloridoa-luminate), (PCl₄)[AlCl₄] or AlPCl₈, was determined and refined using single-crystal X-ray diffraction data. The compound crystallizes in the ortho-rhom-bic space group Pbcm. The asymmetric unit comprises one Al atom, one P atom, and five Cl atoms. The structure is characterized by isolated AlCl₄ and PCl₄ tetra-hedra, isostructural with FePCl₈ and GaPCl₈.

Keywords: aluminium phospho­rus chloride; aluminium(III) chloride; crystal structure; phospho­rus(V) chloride; single-crystal.

Figure 1

The local environments of the AlCl₄ (blue) and PCl₄ tetra­hedra (purple) are shown. Symmetry codes correspond to those in Table 1 ▸.

Figure 2

The displacement of ellipsoids of AlPCl₈ drawn at the 50% probability level viewed from two different orientations: (a) approximately along the [111] direction and (b) along the [001] direction. The AlCl₄ tetra­hedra are represented in blue, and the PCl₄ tetra­hedra in purple.

Figure 3

Powder X-ray Rietveld refinement profile of AlPCl₈. Black dots indicate the observed pattern, the red line represents the calculated pattern, the blue line shows the difference between the observed and calculated patterns, and the pink tick marks correspond to the Bragg reflections positions.