Pentamminechlororhodium dichloride is the dichloride salt of the

coordination complex A coordination complex consists of a central atom or ion, which is usually metallic and is called the ''coordination centre'', and a surrounding array of bound molecules or ions, that are in turn known as '' ligands'' or complexing agents. ...

. It is a yellow, water-soluble solid. The salt is an intermediate in the purification of rhodium from its ores. As shown by X-ray crystallography, the salt consists of the

octahedral complex In chemistry, octahedral molecular geometry, also called square bipyramidal, describes the shape of compounds with six atoms or groups of atoms or ligands symmetrically arranged around a central atom, defining the vertices of an octahedron. The oc ...

and two chloride counterions. It forms from the reaction of

rhodium trichloride Rhodium(III) chloride refers to inorganic compounds with the formula RhCl3(H2O)''n'', where ''n'' varies from 0 to 3. These are diamagnetic solids featuring octahedral Rh(III) centres. Depending on the value of ''n'', the material is either a de ...

and ammonia in ethanol. Two chloride anions are labile, whereas the coordinated chloride ligand is not. Treatment of with zinc dust in the presence of ammonia gives the hydride complex , hH(NH₃)₅sup>2+.

Related compounds

* Chloropentamminecobalt chloride

References

{{Rhodium compounds Chlorides Rhodium(III) compounds Ammine complexes Coordination complexes Chloro complexes