Erbium(III) chloride is a violet solid with the formula . It is used in the preparation of

erbium Erbium is a chemical element with the symbol Er and atomic number 68. A silvery-white solid metal when artificially isolated, natural erbium is always found in chemical combination with other elements. It is a lanthanide, a rare-earth element ...

metal.

Preparation

Anhydrous erbium(III) chloride can be produced by the ammonium chloride route. In the first step,

erbium(III) oxide Erbium(III) oxide is the inorganic compound with the formula . It is a pink paramagnetic solid. It finds uses in various optical materials. Structure Erbium(III) oxide has a cubic structure resembling the bixbyite motif. The Er3+ centers are oc ...

is heated with ammonium chloride to produce the ammonium salt of the pentachloride: : In the second step, the ammonium chloride salt is converted to the trichloride by heating in a vacuum at 350-400 ºC: :

Structural data

Erbium(III) chloride forms crystals of the type, with

monoclinic In crystallography, the monoclinic crystal system is one of the seven crystal systems. A crystal system is described by three vectors. In the monoclinic system, the crystal is described by vectors of unequal lengths, as in the orthorhombic s ...

crystals and the

point group In geometry, a point group is a mathematical group of symmetry operations (isometries in a Euclidean space) that have a fixed point in common. The coordinate origin of the Euclidean space is conventionally taken to be a fixed point, and every p ...

''C''2/m. Erbium(III) chloride hexahydrate also forms monoclinic crystals with the point group of ''P''2/''n'' (''P''2/''c'') - ''C''⁴_2h. In this compound, erbium is octa-coordinated to form ions with the isolated completing the structure.

Optical properties

Erbium(III) chloride solutions show a negative nonlinear absorption effect.

Catalytic properties

The use of erbium(III) chloride as a

catalyst Catalysis () is the process of increasing the rate of a chemical reaction by adding a substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed in the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recyc ...

has been demonstrated in the

acylation In chemistry, acylation (or alkanoylation) is the chemical reaction in which an acyl group () is added to a compound. The compound providing the acyl group is called the acylating agent. Because they form a strong electrophile when treated with ...

alcohols In chemistry, an alcohol is a type of organic compound that carries at least one hydroxyl () functional group bound to a saturated carbon atom. The term ''alcohol'' originally referred to the primary alcohol ethanol (ethyl alcohol), which is ...

and

phenols In organic chemistry, phenols, sometimes called phenolics, are a class of chemical compounds consisting of one or more hydroxyl groups (— O H) bonded directly to an aromatic hydrocarbon group. The simplest is phenol, . Phenolic compounds are c ...

and in an

amine In chemistry, amines (, ) are compounds and functional groups that contain a basic nitrogen atom with a lone pair. Amines are formally derivatives of ammonia (), wherein one or more hydrogen atoms have been replaced by a substituen ...

functionalisation of

furfural Furfural is an organic compound with the formula C4H3OCHO. It is a colorless liquid, although commercial samples are often brown. It has an aldehyde group attached to the 2-position of furan. It is a product of the dehydration of sugars, as occurs ...

.''Synthesis of trans-4,5-Bis-dibenzylaminocyclopent-2-enone from Furfural Catalyzed by ErCl3·6H2O'' Mónica S. Estevão, Ricardo J. V. Martins, and Carlos A. M. Afonso Journal of Chemical Education 2017 94 (10), 1587-1589 It is a catalyst for Friedel–Crafts-type reactions, and can be used in place of cerium(III) chloride for Luche reductions.

References

{{Lanthanide halides Erbium compounds Chlorides Lanthanide halides