Single crystals of Ca7H12Cl2 and Ca2H3Br were obtained by reacting stoichiometric amounts of CaH2 and CaX2 (X = Cl, Br) at 1300 K in the presence of surplus Ca metal for 13 h in silicajacketed Nb ampoules. The crystal structures of the new compounds were determined by means of single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Ca7H12Cl2 crystallizes isotypical to Ba7Cl2F12 and Sr7H12Cl2 in the hexagonal space group P¯6 (no. 174) with the lattice parameters a = 936.51(8), c = 368.65(2) pm, while Ca2H3Br crystallizes in a stuffed anti-CdI2 structure isotypical to Ba2H3Cl and therefore adopts the space group P¯3m1 (no. 164) with the lattice parameters a = 391.37(6) and c = 697.04(13) pm. The structural results are corroborated by EUTAX calculations on the title compounds and the comparison of these results to those for CaH2, CaX2 and CaHX (X = Cl, Br). Similar calculations on the hypothetical compound “Ca7H12Br2” give a possible explanation for the preferred formation of the compound Ca2H3Br.
Graphical Abstract
© 1946 – 2014: Verlag der Zeitschrift für Naturforschung
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.