Structure and Bonding
This Group 4 halide contains hafnium in the +4 oxidation state. Solid HfCl4 is a polymer, each of the Hf centers are bridged by chloride ligands as found for ZrCl4. In the gas phase, both ZrCl4 and HfCl4 are expected to 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).
Read more about this topic: Hafnium(IV) Chloride
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