Two alkali metal chlorites, LiClO2 and KClO2

The structures of tetragonal (P4(2)/ncm) lithium chlorite, LiClO2, and orthorhombic (Cmcm) potassium chlorite, KClO2, have been determined by single-crystal X-ray analyses. In LiClO2, the Li atom is at a site of -4 symmetry, while in KClO2, the K atom is at a site with 2/m symmetry. In both compounds, the unique Cl and O atoms are at sites with mm and m symmetry, respectively. The structure of LiClO2 consists of layers of Li+ cations coordinated by ClO2- anions. In contrast, the structure of KClO2 contains pseudo-layers of K+ and ClO2- ions containing four short K-O distances. The Li+ and K+ cations are surrounded by four and eight chlorite O atoms in tetrahedral and distorted cubic coordination environments, respectively.