Structure and Properties
In solid PbCl2, each lead ion is coordinated by 9 chloride ions – 6 lie at the apices of a trigonal prism and 3 lie beyond the centers of each prism face. The 9 chloride ions are not equidistant from the central lead atom, 7 lie at 280–309 pm and 2 at 370 pm. PbCl2 forms white orthorhombic needles. While Lead(II) chloride is abundant in many natural water reserves, it is unsafe for human consumption and must be filtered out.
Vaporized PbCl2 molecules have a bent structure with the Cl-Pb-Cl angle being 98° and each Pb-Cl bond distance being 2.44 Å. Such PbCl2 is emitted from internal combustion engines that use ethylene chloride-tetraethyllead additives for antiknock purposes.
The solubility of PbCl2 in water is low (9.9 g/L at 20 °C) and for practical purposes it is considered insoluble. Its solubility product constant (Ksp) is 1.7×10−5. It is one of only four commonly insoluble chlorides, the other three being silver chloride (AgCl) with Ksp = 1.8×10−10, copper(I) chloride (CuCl) with Ksp = 1.72×10−7 and mercury(I) chloride (Hg2Cl2) with Ksp = 1.3×10−18.
Read more about this topic: Lead(II) Chloride
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