CHEMISTRY GUIDE

This page looks at the structures of the chlorides of the Period 3 elements (sodium to sulphur), their physical properties and their reactions with water. Chlorine and argon are omitted - chlorine because it is meaningless to talk about "chlorine chloride", and argon because it doesn't form a chloride. A quick summary of the trends The chlorides The chlorides we'll be looking at are: NaCl MgCl 2 AlCl 3 SiCl 4 PCl 5 S 2 Cl 2 PCl 3 There are three chlorides of sulphur, but the only one mentioned by any of the UK-based syllabuses (A level or its equivalents) is S 2 Cl 2 . As you will see later, aluminium chloride exists in some circumstances as a dimer, Al 2 Cl 6 . The structures Sodium chloride and magnesium chloride are ionic and consist of giant ionic lattices at room temperature Aluminium...