New Calcium Hydride Halides with Familiar Structures. Syntheses and Crystal Structures of Ca7H12Cl2 and Ca2H3Br

Single crystals of Ca7H12Cl2 and Ca2H3Br were obtained by reacting stoichiometric amounts of CaH2 and CaX2 (X = Cl, Br) at 1300 K in the presence of surplus Ca metal for 13 h in silicajacketed Nb ampoules. The crystal structures of the new compounds were determined by means of single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Ca7H12Cl2 crystallizes isotypical to Ba7Cl2F12 and Sr7H12Cl2 in the hexagonal space group P6̄ (no. 174) with the lattice parameters a = 936.51(8), c = 368.65(2) pm, while Ca2H3Br crystallizes in a stuffed anti-CdI2 structure isotypical to Ba2H3Cl and therefore adopts the space group P3̄m1 (no. 164) with the lattice parameters a = 391.37(6) and c = 697.04(13) pm. The structural results are corroborated by EUTAX calculations on the title compounds and the comparison of these results to those for CaH2, CaX2 and CaHX (X = Cl, Br). Similar calculations on the hypothetical compound “Ca7H12Br2” give a possible explanation for the preferred formation of the compound Ca2H3Br.