The vibrational spectra of some tetrachlorides in rare gas matrices with particular reference to the molecular shapes of ThCl4 and UCI4
Abstract
Infrared spectra of tin, lead, hafnium, thorium, and uranium tetrachlorides isolated in inert gas matrices are reported. The results obtained for the tin, lead, and hafnium compounds follow the expected isotope patterns for a tetrahedral molecule except for the observation of additional weak features to high frequency of the all-35Cl isotopomers. By contrast for thorium tetrachloride the observed spectrum is not characteristic of a Td molecule but can be fitted to a species with C2v symmetry. Similar results (although less detailed) were obtained for uranium tetrachloride.