Molecular and Crystal Structure of B8Cl8. II. Solution of the Three-Dimensional Structure

With only the information that B and Cl are present in the approximate ratio of 10 to 9, the molecular structure of B₈Cl₈, a new boron chloride, has been determined from single crystals by x‐ray diffraction methods. The chlorine positions, solved by a point‐by‐point, three‐dimensional Patterson superposition method, enabled the boron atoms to be located from electron density maps. The boron atoms form a dodecahedron with triangular faces and D_2d symmetry. One chlorine atom is attached to each boron atom at an average distance of 1.70 A. The shortest boron‐boron distance is 1.78 A. The over‐all agreement factor is ${\mathrm{R=\Sigma |\hspace{0.17em}|F}}_0{\mathrm{|-|F}}_c{\mathrm{|\hspace{0.17em}|/\Sigma |F}}_0\text{|=0.17}$ .