Structure
Its structure adopts the rhenium trioxide motif, featuring distorted AlF6 octahedra. Each fluoride is connected to two Al centers. Because of it is a 3-dimensional polymer, AlF3 has a higher melting point. In contrast, the other trihalides of aluminium, AlCl3, AlBr3, and AlI3, which are either molecular or 1-dimensional polymers, have low melting points and evaporate readily to give dimers. In the gas phase, at ca. 1000 °C, aluminium fluoride exists as trigonal molecules of D3h symmetry. The Al-F bond lengths of this gaseous molecule are 163 pm.
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