Platinum pentafluoride, structure

Although a number of complex fluorides of quinquevalent iridium, (e.g. KIrF,) are known, previous attempts to establish the simple fluoride have failed. The absence of a pentafluoride of iridium has become increasingly anomalous as the pentafluorides of the neighbouring elements, rhenium, osmium, and platinum have been prepared. Previous work - indicated that reactions which might have yielded the pentafluoride gave the tetrafluoride instead. The physical properties of this tetrafluoride. (m.p. 106—107 b.p. > 300 ), however, resembled those of a pentafluoride or oxide tetrafluoride. This indicated that iridium tetrafluoride differed structurally from its neighbouring tetrafluorides. 

In 1958, the fluoride long known[l] as OsFg was shown by Weinstock and Malm [2] to be OsFg and, in 1965, the fluoride of iridium, reported [3,4] on two occasions to be a tetraflu.oride was shown [5] by Bartlett and Rao to be a pentafiuoride. New hexafluorides [4,6-8] and pentafiuorides[9-ll] (in addition to RuFj which had long been known) have now established hexafluorides and pentafluorides for all of the platinum metals other than palladium. Moreover, the trifluorides, RuFj, RhFr, PdFi and IrFr have been established by X-ray crystal structure analysis [12] although that of palladium has been shown [13] to be the mixed oxidation state compound Pd(II) Pd(IV)F6. So far only one di-fluoride of the platinum metals, PdF2, has been reported[14-16]. 

Although single crystals of IrFs have been obtained, none were of suitable size and shape to yieid an accurate structure and when it became clear that the structure would be no more precise than that reported for RuFs, the analysis was abandoned. Nevertheless, the precession and Weissenberg photographic data have established the space group P2ila and indicate a close structural relationship to the other platinum-metal pentafluorides. We, therefore, believe that these pentafluorides will all show essentially the same tetrameric unit as detailed for RhFs tB Figures 1 and 2 and Table III. 

---