Magnesium chloride tetrahydrate, MgCl2·4H2O

The title compound, MgCl(2)·4H(2)O, was crystallized at 403 K and its structure determined at 200 K. The structure is built up from MgCl(2)(H(2)O)(4) octahedra with a trans configuration. Each complex is situated on a crystallographic twofold axis, with the rotation axis aligned along one H(2)O-Mg-OH(2) axis. They are connected by a complex network of O-H···Cl hydrogen bonds. The structure contains two-dimensional sections that are essentially identical to those in the reported tetrahydrates of CrCl(2), FeCl(2), FeBr(2) and CoBr(2), but they are stacked in a different manner in MgCl(2)·4H(2)O compared with the transition metal structures.