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Updated: May 23, 2026

Synthesis and Characterization of Functionalized Metal-organic Frameworks
Published on: September 5, 2014
On the structure of β-molybdenum dichloride
Frederic Poineau1, Erik V Johnstone, Philippe F Weck
1Department of Chemistry, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154, USA. poineauf@unlv.nevada.edu
Abstract:
The structure of β-molybdenum dichloride is compared with that of TcCl(2) using EXAFS spectroscopy. For TcCl(2), the Tc atom is surrounded by Tc atoms at 2.13(2), 3.45(3), 3.79(4), and 4.02(4) Å. For β-MoCl(2), the Mo is surrounded by Mo atoms at 2.21(2), 2.91(3), and 3.83(4) Å. The latter distances are consistent with the presence of an [Mo(4)Cl(12)] unit in the solid state, one constituted by two triply Mo-Mo-bonded [Mo(2)Cl(8)] units. First-principles calculations show that β-MoCl(2) with the TcCl(2) "structure type" is less stable than α-MoCl(2) (Mo(6)Cl(12)) or [Mo(4)Cl(12)] edge-sharing clusters.
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