Tetrahedric coordination

Fig. XV-11. Electron micrograph of a freeze fracture replica of a region inside a mul-tivesicular liposome. Note the tetrahedral coordination nearly every vertex has three edges, and each face is connected to three others. The average number of edges per face is 5.1. (From Ref. 77.)...

Copper(I) tends towards a tetrahedral coordination geometry in complexes. With 2,2 -bipyr-idine as a chelate ligand a distorted tetrahedral coordination with almost orthogonal ligands results. 2,2 -Bipyridine oligomers with flexible 6,6 -links therefore form double helices with two 2,2 -bipyridine units per copper(I) ion (J. M. Lehn, 1987,1988). J. M. Lehn (1990 U. Koert, 1990) has also prepared such helicates with nucleosides, e.g., thymidine, covalently attached to suitable spacers to obtain water-soluble double helix complexes, so-called inverted DNA , with internal positive charges and external nucleic bases. Cooperative effects lead preferentially to two identical strands in these helicates when copper(I) ions are added to a mixture of two different homooligomers. 

Pure tetrahedral coordination probably occurs only ia species where there are four identical groups and no steric distortions. Both PCU and PBr" 4, present ia soHd phosphoms haUdes, appear to have poiat symmetry. Other species, eg, H PO and POCl, have only slightly distorted tetrahedra. Similar geometries occur ia salts, esters, and other derivatives of phosphoric, phosphonic, and phosphinic acids as well as phosphine oxides and phosphonium salts. 

Properties. Physical properties of titanium tetrachloride are given ia Table 17. la the vapor phase, the titanium tetrachloride molecule is tetrahedral and has a Ti—Cl bond length of 218 pm. The regular tetrahedral coordination is retained ia the soHd, although each of the chlorines is crystaHographicaHy differeat ia the monoclinic lattice (131). 

For halides the cation should have a charge of 2+ rather than 4+ for tetrahedral coordination. The only fluoride compound capable of containing two-coordinate F and four-coordinate cations is Bep2. For ZrF, the radius ratio rule predicts that Zr" " is eight-coordinate if all fluorine atoms are two - c o o rdinate. 

Allophane and Imogolite. AUophane is an amorphous clay that is essentially an amorphous soHd solution of sUica, alumina, and water (82). In allophane less than one-half of the aluminum is held in tetrahedral coordinations and the Si02 to AI2O2 ratio typically varies between 1.3 and 2.0, but values as low as 0.83 have been reported. The typical morphology of allophane is cylindrical (37). AUophane may be associated with haUoysite, smectite minerals, or it may occur as a homogeneous mixture with evansite, an amorphous soHd solution of phosphoms, alumina, and water. Its composition, hydration, and properties vary. Chemical analyses of two allophane samples are given in Table 5. 

In the face-centred cubic structure tirere are four atoms per unit cell, 8x1/8 cube corners and 6x1/2 face centres. There are also four octahedral holes, one body centre and 12 x 1 /4 on each cube edge. When all of the holes are filled the overall composition is thus 1 1, metal to interstitial. In the same metal structure there are eight cube corners where tetrahedral sites occur at the 1/4, 1/4, 1/4 positions. When these are all filled there is a 1 2 metal to interstititial ratio. The transition metals can therefore form monocarbides, niU ides and oxides with the octahedrally coordinated interstitial atoms, and dihydrides with the tetrahedral coordination of the hydrogen atoms. 

Figure 7.7. The spinel strueture. The unit eell can be divided into octants - tetrahedrally coordinated cations A. octahedrally coordinated eations B, and oxygen atoms (large cireles) are shown in two oetants only (adapted from Smit and Wijn 1959).

Figure 5.2 Unit cell of CaF2 showing eightfold (cubic) coordination of Ca by 8F and fourfold (tetrahedral) coordination of F by 4Ca. The structure can be thought of as an fee array of Ca in which all the tetrahedral interstices are occupied by F.

Figure 7.20 (a) Structure of IC5a(CH2)3NI showing Irigonal planar monopyramidal 4-fold coordination about Ga and tetrahedral coordination about N. (b) Stracture of IMe3lnlt) -(PHNCH2)3ll — see text for dimensions, (c) Structure of polymeric [Inln -CsHj)]. 

Figure 8.3 Structure of diamond showing the tetrahedral coordination of C the dashed lines indicate the cubic unit cell containing 8 C atoms.

The ability of C to catenate (i.e. to form bonds to itself in compounds) is nowhere better illustrated than in the compounds it forms with H. Hydrocarbons occur in great variety in petroleum deposits and elsewhere, and form various homologous series in which the C atoms are linked into chains, branched chains and rings. The study of these compounds and their derivatives forms the subject of organic chemistry and is fully discussed in the many textbooks and treatises on that subject. The matter is further considered on p. 374 in relation to the much smaller ability of other Group 14 elements to form such catenated compounds. Methane, CH4, is the archetype of tetrahedral coordination in molecular compounds some of its properties are listed in Table 8.4 where they are compared with those of the... 

In the vast majority of its compounds Si is tetrahedrally coordinated but sixfold coordination also occurs, and occasional examples of other coordination geometries are known as indicated in Table 9.2 (p. 335). Unstable 2-coordinate Si has been known for many years but in 1994 the stable, colourless, crystalline silylene [ SiNBu CH=CHNBu j, structure (1), p. 336, was... 

Schematic representation of defect clusters in Fei- jO. The normal NaCl-type structure (a) has Fe (small open circles) and O (large dark circles) at alternate comers of the cube. In the 4 1 cluster (h), four octahedral Fe" sites are left vacant and an Fe" ion (grey) occupies the cube centre, thus being tetrahedrally coordinated by the 40. In (c) a more extended 13 4 cluster is shown in which, again, all anion sites are occupied but the 13 octahedral Fe sites are vacant and four Fe occupy a tetrahedral array of cube centres.

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... 

Figure 21.2 (a) The tetragonal unit cell of rutile, Ti02- (b) The coordination of Zr in baddeleyite Zr02 the 3 O atoms in the upper plane are each coordinated by 3 Zr atoms in a plane, whereas the 4 lower O atoms are each tetrahedrally coordinated by 4 Zr atoms. 

It is evident from Fig. 22.2 that only in very dilute solutions are monomeric vanadium ions found and any increase in concentrations, particularly if the solution is acidic, leads to polymerization. nmr work indicates that, starting from the alkaline side, the various ionic species are all based on 4-coordinate vanadium(V) in the form of linked VO4 tetrahedra until the decavana-dates appear. These evidently involve a higher coordination number, but whether or not it is the same in solution as in the solids which can be separated is uncertain. However, it is interesting to note that similarities between the vanadate and chromate systems cease with the appearance of the decavanadates which have no counterpart in chromate chemistry. The smaller chromium(VI) is apparently limited to tetrahedral coordination with oxygen, whereas vanadium(V) is not. 

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