Europium(III) chloride

Treating Eu₂O₃ with aqueous HCl produces hydrated europium chloride (EuCl₃·6H₂O). This salt cannot be rendered anhydrous by heating. Instead one obtains an oxychloride.

Anhydrous EuCl₃ is often prepared by the "ammonium chloride route," starting from either Eu₂O₃

{{cite book

| last =Meyer

| first =G.

| title =The Ammonium Chloride Route to Anhydrous Rare Earth Chlorides-The Example of YCl₃

| series =Inorganic Syntheses

| volume =25

| year =1989

| pages =146–150

| doi =10.1002/9780470132562.ch35

| isbn =978-0-470-13256-2}}

{{cite book |title=Synthetic Methods of Organometallic and Inorganic Chemistry |volume=VI |last=Edelmann |first=F. T. |author2=Poremba, P. |editor=Herrmann, W. A.|year=1997 |publisher=Georg Thieme Verlag |location=Stuttgart |isbn=3-13-103021-6 }} or hydrated europium chloride (EuCl₃·6H₂O) by heating carefully to 230 °C.{{cite journal|last=Taylor|first=M.D.|author2=Carter, C.P.|title=Preparation of anhydrous lanthanide halides, especially iodides|journal=Journal of Inorganic and Nuclear Chemistry|volume=24|issue=4|pages=387–391|doi=10.1016/0022-1902(62)80034-7|year=1962}} These methods produce (NH₄)₂[EuCl₅]:

:10 NH₄Cl + Eu₂O₃ → 2 (NH₄)₂[EuCl₅] + 6 NH₃ + 3 H₂O

:EuCl₃·6H₂O + 2 NH₄Cl → (NH₄)₂[EuCl₅] + 6 H₂O

The pentachloride decomposes thermally according to the following equation:

: (NH₄)₂[EuCl₅] → 2 NH₄Cl + EuCl₃

The thermolysis reaction proceeds via the intermediary of (NH₄)[Eu₂Cl₇].

Europium(III) chloride is a precursor to other europium compounds. It can be converted to the corresponding metal bis(trimethylsilyl)amide via salt metathesis with lithium bis(trimethylsilyl)amide.{{cite journal|last=Bradley|first=Donald C.|author2=Ghotra, Joginder S. |author3=Hart, F. Alan |title=Low co-ordination numbers in lanthanide and actinide compounds. Part I. The preparation and characterization of tris{bis(trimethylsilyl)-amido}lanthanides|journal=Journal of the Chemical Society, Dalton Transactions|year=1973|issue=10|pages=1021–1023|doi=10.1039/DT9730001021|url=http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/1973/dt/dt9730001021|url-access=subscription}} The reaction is performed in THF and requires a period at reflux.

: EuCl₃ + 3 LiN(SiMe₃)₂ → Eu(N(SiMe₃)₂)₃ + 3 LiCl

Eu(N(SiMe₃)₂)₃ is a starting material for the more complicated coordination complexes.

Reduction with hydrogen gas with heating gives EuCl₂. The latter has been used to prepare organometallic compounds of europium(II), such as bis(pentamethylcyclopentadienyl)europium(II) complexes.{{cite journal | doi = 10.1021/ic50212a031 | year = 1980 | author = Tilley, T. Don | journal = Inorganic Chemistry | volume = 19 | pages = 2999 | title = Divalent lanthanide chemistry. Bis (pentamethylcyclopentadienyl) europium(II) and -ytterbium(II) derivatives: crystal structure of bis (pentamethylcyclopentadienyl) (tetrahydrofuran ytterbium(II) -hemitoluene at 176 K | last2 = Andersen | first2 = Richard A. | last3 = Spencer | first3 = Brock | last4 = Ruben | first4 = Helena | last5 = Zalkin | first5 = Allan | last6 = Templeton | first6 = David H. | issue = 10| url = https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc838019/ }}{{cite journal | doi = 10.1021/om00138a001 | year = 1986 | author = Evans, William J. | journal = Organometallics | volume = 5 | pages = 1285 | title = Synthesis and x-ray crystal structure of bis(pentamethylcyclopentadienyl) complexes of samarium and europium: (C₅Me₅)₂Sm and (C₅Me₅)₂Eu | last2 = Hughes | first2 = Laura A. | last3 = Hanusa | first3 = Timothy P. | issue = 7}} Europium(III) chloride can be used as a starting point for the preparation of other europium salts.

In the solid state, it crystallises in the UCl₃ motif. The Eu centres are nine-coordinate.{{Greenwood&Earnshaw}}

:File:Cerium bromide (space filling) 2.png

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{{Europium compounds}}

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Category:Chlorides

Category:Europium(III) compounds

Category:Lanthanide halides