Ruthenium hexafluoride, also ruthenium(VI) fluoride (RuF₆), is a compound of

ruthenium Ruthenium is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ru and atomic number 44. It is a rare transition metal belonging to the platinum group of the periodic table. Like the other metals of the platinum group, ruthenium is inert to ...

and

fluorine Fluorine is a chemical element with the symbol F and atomic number 9. It is the lightest halogen and exists at standard conditions as a highly toxic, pale yellow diatomic gas. As the most electronegative reactive element, it is extremely reacti ...

and one of the seventeen known binary

hexafluoride A hexafluoride is a chemical compound with the general formula QXnF6, QXnF6m−, or QXnF6m+. Many molecules fit this formula. An important hexafluoride is hexafluorosilicic acid (H2SiF6), which is a byproduct of the mining of phosphate rock. In ...

Synthesis

Ruthenium hexafluoride is made by a direct reaction of ruthenium metal in a gas stream of

and

argon Argon is a chemical element with the symbol Ar and atomic number 18. It is in group 18 of the periodic table and is a noble gas. Argon is the third-most abundant gas in Earth's atmosphere, at 0.934% (9340 ppmv). It is more than twice as abu ...

at 400–450 °C. The yields of this reaction are less than 10%. : + 3 →

Description

Ruthenium hexafluoride is a dark brown crystalline solid that melts at 54 °C. The solid structure measured at −140 °C is

orthorhombic In crystallography, the orthorhombic crystal system is one of the 7 crystal systems. Orthorhombic lattices result from stretching a cubic lattice along two of its orthogonal pairs by two different factors, resulting in a rectangular prism with a r ...

space group ''Pnma''.

Lattice parameters Lattice may refer to: Arts and design * Latticework, an ornamental criss-crossed framework, an arrangement of crossing laths or other thin strips of material * Lattice (music), an organized grid model of pitch ratios * Lattice (pastry), an orna ...

are ''a'' = 9.313 Å, ''b'' = 8.484 Å, and ''c'' = 4.910 Å. There are four

formula unit In chemistry, a formula unit is the empirical formula of any ionic or covalent network solid compound used as an independent entity for stoichiometric calculations. It is the lowest whole number ratio of ions represented in an ionic compound. Exa ...

s (in this case, discrete molecules) per

unit cell In geometry, biology, mineralogy and solid state physics, a unit cell is a repeating unit formed by the vectors spanning the points of a lattice. Despite its suggestive name, the unit cell (unlike a unit vector, for example) does not necessaril ...

, giving a density of 3.68 g·cm⁻³. The RuF₆ molecule itself (the form important for the liquid or gas phase) has

octahedral molecular geometry 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 ...

, which has point group ('' O_h''). The Ru–F

bond length In molecular geometry, bond length or bond distance is defined as the average distance between nuclei of two bonded atoms in a molecule. It is a transferable property of a bond between atoms of fixed types, relatively independent of the rest of ...

is 1.818 Å.

References

CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics The ''CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics'' is a comprehensive one-volume reference resource for science research. First published in 1914, it is currently () in its 103rd edition, published in 2022. It is sometimes nicknamed the "Rubber Bible ...

'', 90th Edition, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 2009, , Section 4, ''Physical Constants of Inorganic Compounds'', p. 4-85. T. Drews, J. Supeł, A. Hagenbach, K. Seppelt: "Solid State Molecular Structures of Transition Metal Hexafluorides", in: ''

Inorganic Chemistry Inorganic chemistry deals with synthesis and behavior of inorganic and organometallic compounds. This field covers chemical compounds that are not carbon-based, which are the subjects of organic chemistry. The distinction between the two disci ...

'', 2006, ''45 (9)'', S. 3782–3788; ; .

External links

*
Ruthenium hexafluoride at webelements.com
{{fluorides

Hexafluoride A hexafluoride is a chemical compound with the general formula QXnF6, QXnF6m−, or QXnF6m+. Many molecules fit this formula. An important hexafluoride is hexafluorosilicic acid (H2SiF6), which is a byproduct of the mining of phosphate rock. In ...

Hexafluorides Octahedral compounds

Synthesis

Description

References

Further reading

External links