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Chemistry Central Journal publishes new research article

Research article    
Characterisation of temperature-dependent phase transitions in 2,2-trimethylenedioxy-4,4,6,6-tetrachlorocyclotriphosphazene, N3P3Cl4[O(CH2)3O]
Simon J Coles, David B Davies, Michael B Hursthouse, Susanne L Huth, Adem Kilic, Mark E Light, Marianne Odlyha, John S Rutherford, Robert A Shaw, Aylin Uslu
Chemistry Central Journal 2007, 1:20 (18 July 2007)
[Abstract] [Provisional PDF]

The crystal structure of 2,2-trimethylenedioxy-4,4,6,6-tetrachlorocyclo- triphosphazene has been determined at 120, 274 and 293 K. The result obtained at 293 K confirms the room temperature Cmc21 structure, but at the lower temperatures the space group is Pna21. Nevertheless the basic structure remains the same, with only small displacements of the atoms, amounting to an average of 25 pm between 120 and 293 K. The article outlines how X-ray diffraction and DSC results indicate that the phase transition takes place in two steps between 274 - 293K providing an understanding of previous NQR results. In the intermediate temperature range the molecules are displaced from their room temperature positions in such a way as to give an average structure with Cmc21 symmetry. The authors conclude that the overall phase transition is consistent with the occurrence of a soft lattice mode at room temperature in which a large displacement of the molecule in the x-direction is coupled with a flexing motion about an axis defined by the nitrogen atoms in the 1 and 5 positions.

Posted by Gino D'Oca at 14:49    Comments (0)