Molecular and Crystal Structure of B8Cl8. II. Solution of the Three-Dimensional Structure

With only the information that B and Cl are present in the approximate ratio of 10 to 9, the molecular structure of B8Cl8, a new boron chloride, has been determined from single crystals by x-ray diffraction methods. The chlorine positions, solved by a point-by-point, three-dimensional Patterson superposition method, enabled the boron atoms to be located from electron density maps. The boron atoms form a dodecahedron with triangular faces and D2d symmetry. One chlorine atom is attached to each boron atom at an average distance of 1.70 A. The shortest boron-boron distance is 1.78 A. The over-all agreement factor is R=Σ| |F0|−|Fc| |/Σ|F0|=0.17.