Magnesium polonide (MgPo) is a salt of

magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 of the periodic ta ...

and

polonium Polonium is a chemical element with the symbol Po and atomic number 84. Polonium is a chalcogen. A rare and highly radioactive metal with no stable isotopes, polonium is chemically similar to selenium and tellurium, though its metallic character ...

. It is a

polonide A polonide is a chemical compound of the radioactive element polonium with any element less electronegative than polonium. Polonides are usually prepared by a direct reaction between the elements at temperatures of around 300–400 °C... They ...

, a set of very chemically stable compounds of polonium.

Preparation

Magnesium polonide can be produced by heating a mixture of elemental magnesium and polonium at 300–400 °C.

Structure

Magnesium polonide has the nickeline (NiAs) structure. It is unusual among

s in not being

isomorphous In mathematics, an isomorphism is a structure-preserving mapping between two structures of the same type that can be reversed by an inverse mapping. Two mathematical structures are isomorphic if an isomorphism exists between them. The word is ...

with the corresponding sulfide,

selenide A selenide is a chemical compound containing a selenium anion with oxidation number of −2 (Se2−), much as sulfur does in a sulfide. The chemistry of the selenides and sulfides is similar. Similar to sulfide, in aqueous solution, the selenide ion ...

and telluride; only mercury polonide (HgPo) shares this property.

References

{{inorganic-chemistry-stub Magnesium compounds Polonides Nickel arsenide structure type