Abstract
The basic structure of the CF3PCl4 molecule has been established from a study of its vibrational spectrum. The CF3 group occupies an axial position in the trigonal bipyramidal structure but no information is obtained concerning the height of the barrier to internal rotation. All of the active fundamentals are assigned in the Raman spectrum (Δv=50–1500 cm—1) and supplementary data were obtained from a pressure limited gas‐phase study of the infrared spectrum (2000–280 cm—1). Fundamental frequencies are: a1=1145, 743, 493, 374, 324, 260; e=1168, 587, 543, 304, 239, 193, and 94 cm—1. The compound is unstable thermally decomposing into CF3Cl, CF3PCl2, PCl3, and PCl5.