THE CRYSTAL-STRUCTURE AND RAMAN-SPECTRUM OF GE5CL12-CENTER-DOT-GECL4 AND THE VIBRATIONAL-SPECTRUM OF GE2CL6

The Raman spectrum of Ge2Cl6 shows close analogies with that of the is oelectronic [Ga2Cl6](2-). A band at 262 cm(-1) is assigned as principa lly a Ge-Ge stretching mode. The compound is very moisture-sensitive a nd decomposes readily in vacuo to give GeCl4 as one of the products. A sealed sample stored at room temperature gave colorless cuboidal crys tals shown by X-ray crystallography to be Ge5Cl12. GeCl4. The Ge-Ge di stance in the neopentyl-like Ge-5 skeleton is 2.420(6) Angstrom, and t he Ge-Cl distance in the Ge5Cl12 moiety is 2.119(5) Angstrom whereas i n the case of the GeCl4 molecule it is 2.082(7) Angstrom. The symmetri c stretching frequency of the Ge-5 tetrahedron is assigned to the band at 224 cm(-1).