Tungsten pentachloride is a hygroscopic black crystal with molecular formula of WCl5 (or W2Cl10), CAS No. of 13470-14-9, and relative density of 3.88g/cm3. WCl5 is an inorganic compound, which is analogous in many ways to the more familiar molybdenum pentachloride.
Properties
1. Dissolved in water and decomposed to form W2O5.
2. Easily decomposed if exposed to the air.
3. Heated in the air to obtain tungsten oxytetrachloride (WOCl4).
4. Very sensitive to humidity, placed in the air to generate a green film in the surface.
5. Decomposed in most polar solvents, slightly soluble in non-polar solvents such as carbon disulfide.
6. Soluble in benzene, chloroform, carbon disulfide and other organic solvents.
Structure
The compound exists as a dimer, with a pair of octahedral tungsten(V) centers bridged by two chloride ligands. The W-W separation is non-bonding. The compound is isostructural with Nb2Cl10 and Mo2Cl10. The compound evaporates to give trigonal bipyramidal WCl5 monomers.
Preparation
The material is prepared by the reduction of tungsten hexachloride. One method involves the use of tetrachloroethylene as the reductant:
2 WCl6 + C2Cl4 → W2Cl10 + C2Cl6
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