Talk:Bismuth chloride

Structure

I recall from a 1950's textbook that at low temperatures bismuth chloride is a covalent polymer like the compounds of arsenic and antimony but at higher temperatures (normal room temperatures included) an ionic structure is preferred. Considering a cube, the unit cell has Bi³⁺ at the vertices and Cl^- at the midpoint of each edge. This would give each Bi³⁺ six chloride neighbours and each chloride ion two bismuth ion neighbours, as is required to fit the formula BiCl₃. Can any other contributor verify this or provide an appropriate structure diagram? Dajwilkinson 23:45, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

I checked the "bible" of inorganic chem. and it indicates that the BiCl3 structure is polymeric. I think that you are correct that cuboidal clusters do occur in the bismuth halides, or subhalides. More later.--Smokefoot 00:41, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

A few references on the topic:

• Acta Cryst. (1972). B28, 2885

• Acta Cryst. (1971). B27, 2298-2304 (correction to coordinates)

• Fresenius' J. Anal. Chem. (1982) 312, 17-18

All involve pyramidal BiCl₃ molecules with five chlorides further away from Bi:

Ben (talk) 20:54, 5 June 2009 (UTC)