Talk:Vanadium tetrachloride

Vanadium pentachloride
Isn't it also a steric problem that VCl5 does not exist, that five chlorine atoms just don't fit around a vanadium atom (or at least the bonds had to be elongated and thus destabilized)? Or is this explanation insufficient, because it would find other arrangements (e.g. VCl4+ Cl- )? --130.83.100.213 (talk) 11:28, 10 September 2013 (UTC)


 * Since the covalent radius of the vanadium atom is bigger than that of the phosphorous atom, and since phosphorous pentachloride is well-known, I wouldn't say that this is a steric problem. Besides the "oxidant theory" in the article, the instability of VCl5 may also be caused by (lack of) orbital hybridisation, since the compound VOCl3 exists and doesn't immediately decompose to release chlorine. --79.243.239.89 (talk) 12:22, 14 September 2013 (UTC)