Hafnium(IV) chloride
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| Names | |
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IUPAC names
Hafnium(IV) chloride
Hafnium tetrachloride |
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| Identifiers | |
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3D model (JSmol)
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| ChemSpider | |
| ECHA InfoCard | 100.033.463 |
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PubChem CID
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| Properties | |
| HfCl4 | |
| Molar mass | 320.302 g/mol |
| Appearance | white crystalline solid |
| Density | 3.89 g/cm3 |
| Melting point | 432 °C (810 °F; 705 K) |
| decomposes | |
| Vapor pressure | 1 mmHg at 190 °C |
| Structure | |
| Monoclinic, mP10 | |
| C2/c, No. 13 | |
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a = 0.6327 nm, b = 0.7377 nm, c = 0.62 nm
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| 4 | |
| Hazards | |
| Main hazards | irritant and corrosive |
| Safety data sheet | MSDS |
| Flash point | Non-flammable |
| Lethal dose or concentration (LD, LC): | |
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LD50 (median dose)
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2362 mg/kg (rat, oral) |
| Related compounds | |
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Other anions
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Hafnium tetrafluoride Hafnium(IV) bromide Hafnium(IV) iodide |
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Other cations
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Titanium(IV) chloride Zirconium(IV) chloride |
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Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa).
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 (what is   ?) |
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| Infobox references | |
Hafnium(IV) chloride is the inorganic compound with the formula HfCl4. This colourless solid is the precursor to most hafnium organometallic compounds. It has a variety of highly specialized applications, mainly in materials science and as a catalyst.
HfCl4 can be produced by several related procedures:
Hafnium and zirconium occur together in minerals such as zircon, cyrtolite and baddeleyite. Zircon contains 0.05% to 2.0% hafnium dioxide HfO2, cyrtolite with 5.5% to 17% HfO2 and baddeleyite contains 1.0 to 1.8 percent HfO2. Hafnium and zirconium compounds are extracted from ores together and converted to a mixture of the tetrachlorides.
The separation of HfCl4 and ZrCl4 is difficult because the compounds of Hf and Zr have very similar chemical and physical properties. Their atomic radii are similar: the atomic radius is 156.4 pm for hafnium, whereas that of Zr is 160 pm. These two metals undergo similar reactions and form similar coordination complexes.
A number of processes have been proposed to purify HfCl4 from ZrCl4 including fractional distillation, fractional precipitation, fractional crystallization and ion exchange. The log (base 10) of the vapor pressure of solid hafnium chloride (from 476 to 681 K) is given by the equation: log10P = −5197/T + 11.712, where the pressure is measured in torrs and temperature in kelvins. (The pressure at the melting point is 23,000 torrs.)
One method is based on the difference in the reducibility between the two tetrahalides. The tetrahalides can in be separated by selectively reducing the zirconium compound to one or more lower halides or even zirconium. The hafnium tetrachloride remains substantially unchanged during the reduction and may be recovered readily from the zirconium subhalides. Hafnium tetrachloride is volatile and can therefore easily be separated from the involatile zirconium trihalide.
This group 4 halide contains hafnium in the +4 oxidation state. Solid HfCl4 is a polymer with octahedral Hf centers. Of the six chloride ligands surrounding each Hf centre, two chloride ligands are terminal and four bridge to another Hf centre. In the gas phase, both ZrCl4 and HfCl4 adopt the monomeric tetrahedral structure seen for TiCl4. Electronographic investigations of HfCl4 in gas phase showed that the Hf-Cl internuclear distance is 2.33 Å and the Cl…Cl internuclear distance is 3.80 Å. The ratio of intenuclear distances r(Me-Cl)/r(Cl…Cl) is 1.630 and this value agrees well with the value for the regular tetrahedron model (1.633).
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