Coordination number ionic structure

The melting and boiling points of the aluminium halides, in contrast to the boron compounds, are irregular. It might reasonably be expected that aluminium, being a more metallic element than boron, would form an ionic fluoride and indeed the fact that it remains solid until 1564 K. when it sublimes, would tend to confirm this, although it should not be concluded that the fluoride is, therefore, wholly ionic. The crystal structure is such that each aluminium has a coordination number of six, being surrounded by six fluoride ions. 

Crystal Structure and Ionic Radii. Crystal stmcture data have provided the basis for the ionic radii (coordination number = CN = 6), which are summarized in Table 9 (13,14,17). For both and ions there is an actinide contraction, analogous to the lanthanide contraction, with increasing positive charge on the nucleus. 

The predominantly ionic alkali metal sulfides M2S (Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs) adopt the antifluorite structure (p. 118) in which each S atom is surrounded by a cube of 8 M and each M by a tetrahedron of S. The alkaline earth sulfides MS (Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba) adopt the NaCl-type 6 6 structure (p. 242) as do many other monosulfides of rather less basic metals (M = Pb, Mn, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Tb, Ho, Th, U, Pu). However, many metals in the later transition element groups show substantial trends to increasing covalency leading either to lower coordination numbers or to layer-lattice structures. Thus MS (Be, Zn, Cd, Hg) adopt the 4 4 zinc blende structure (p. 1210) and ZnS, CdS and MnS also crystallize in the 4 4 wurtzite modification (p. 1210). In both of these structures both M and S are tetrahedrally coordinated, whereas PtS, which also has 4 4... 

The formulated principals correlating crystal structure features with the X Nb(Ta) ratio do not take into account the impact of the second cation. Nevertheless, substitution of a second cation in compounds of similar types can change the character of the bonds within complex ions. Specifically, the decrease in the ionic radius of the second (outer-sphere) cation leads not only to a decrease in its coordination number but also to a decrease in the ionic bond component of the complex [277]. 

Three conceptual steps can be discerned in the definition of the ionic structure of fluoride melts containing tantalum or niobium. Based on the very first thermodynamic calculations and melting diagram analysis, it was initially believed that the coordination numbers of tantalum and niobium, in a molten system containing alkali metal fluorides, increase up to 8. 

In an ionic solid, the coordination number means the number of ions of opposite charge immediately surrounding a specific ion. In the rock-salt structure, the coordination numbers of the cations and the anions are both 6, and the structure overall is described as having (6,6)-coordination. In this notation, the first number is the cation coordination number and the second is that of the anion. The rock-salt structure is found for a number of other minerals having ions of the same charge number, including KBr, Rbl, MgO, CaO, and AgCl. It is common whenever the cations and anions have very different radii, in which case the smaller cations can fit into the octahedral holes in a face-centered cubic array of anions. The radius ratio, p (rho), which is defined as... 

The dominant features which control the stoichiometry of transition-metal complexes relate to the relative sizes of the metal ions and the ligands, rather than the niceties of electronic configuration. You will recall that the structures of simple ionic solids may be predicted with reasonable accuracy on the basis of radius-ratio rules in which the relative ionic sizes of the cations and anions in the lattice determine the structure adopted. Similar effects are important in determining coordination numbers in transition-metal compounds. In short, it is possible to pack more small ligands than large ligands about a metal ion of a given size. 

Several additional, more complicated structure types are known for ionic compounds. For example, according to the radius ratio, one could expect the rutile type for strontium iodide (rSr2+ /i = 0.54). In fact, the structure consists of Sr2+ ions with a coordination number of 7 and anions having two different coordination numbers, 3 and 4. 

In a stable ionic structure the valence (ionic charge) of each anion with changed sign is exactly or nearly equal to the sum of the electrostatic bond strengths to it from adjacent cations. The electrostatic bond strength is defined as the ratio of the charge on a cation to its coordination number. 

When spherical objects are stacked to produce a three-dimensional array (crystal lattice), the relative sizes of the spheres determine what types of arrangements are possible. It is the interaction of the cations and anions by electrostatic forces that leads to stability of any ionic structure. Therefore, it is essential that each cation be surrounded by several anions and each anion be surrounded by several cations. This local arrangement is largely determined by the relative sizes of the ions. The number of ions of opposite charge surrounding a given ion in a crystal is called the coordination number. This is actually not a very good term because the bonds are not coordinate bonds (see Chapter 16). For a specific cation, there will be a limit to the number of anions that can surround the cation because... 

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