The Crystal Structure of Solvated Molybdenum Oxide Tetrachloride

Although molybdenum oxide tetrachloride was first reported more than a century ago [1] the compound has been satisfactorily characterised only recently [2]. A gas-phase electron diffraction study is available [3] but the structure in the solid has not previously been described. However, it has been suggested that the solid state structure "is similar to that of WOCI4 on the basis of physical properties, X-ray powder and infrared data" [4]. Hess and Härtung have shown that solid WOCI4 contains squarepyramidal molecules linked into