Seleninyl chloride
Chemical compound
Seleninyl chloride is the inorganic compound with the formula SeOCl2. It is a colorless liquid. With a high dielectric constant (55) and high specific conductance, it is an attractive solvent. Structurally, it is a close chemical relative of thionyl chloride SOCl2, being a pyramidal molecule.
01Preparation and reactions
Seleninyl chloride can be prepared by several methods, and a common one involves the conversion of selenium dioxide to dichloroselenious acid followed by dehydration:
- SeO2 + 2 HCl → Se(OH)2Cl2
- Se(OH)2Cl2 → SeOCl2 + H2O
The original synthesis involved the redistribution reaction of selenium dioxide and selenium tetrachloride.
Pure seleninyl chloride autoionizes to a dimer:
- SeOCl2 ↔ (SeO)2Cl+
3 + Cl−
The SeOCl2 is generally a labile Lewis acid and solutions of sulfur trioxide in SeOCl2 likely form [SeOCl]+[SO3Cl]− the same way.
The compound hydrolyzes readily to form hydrogen chloride and selenium dioxide, and very few organic compounds dissolve in it without reaction. At elevated temperatures, it is a strong oxidizer, yielding a chloride, selenium dioxide, and diselenium dichloride.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Seleninyl chloride”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Seleninyl chloride.png by ChemicalForce, CC BY-SA 4.0
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