Crystal chemical analysis of 70 compounds containing the CrXn (X = F, Cl, B
r, I) polyhedra is carried out with the use of Voronoi-Dirichlet polyhedra
and the intersecting spheres method. Despite a varied oxidation state (IV,
III, II) of chromium atoms, 114 types of Cr atoms are six-coordinate with r
espect to the halogen atoms and form, as a rule, the octahedral CrX6 comple
xes (and only one time, the trigonal prism (CrF6)-F-II). An increase in the
oxidation number of chromium atoms is accompanied by a regular decrease in
the volume of their VD polyhedra (for the transformation Cr(II) --> Cr(III
), by 3.0-4.1 Angstrom(3); for Cr(III) --> Cr(IV), by 0.8 Angstrom(3)). The
shortest Cr-Cr distances in the structures of chromium fluoro complexes (3
.30 Angstrom) noticeably exceed analogous distances in chloro (3.09 Angstro
m), bromo (3.19 Angstrom), or iodo (3.19 Angstrom) complexes. Strong (speci
fic) nonbonded Cr ... Cr interactions occur only in the structures of Cr(II
) chlorides and bromides or Cr(II) and Cr(III) iodides containing CrX6 octa
hedra that share faces to form infinite chains CrX6/2=[CrX3](-) or dimers 2
CrX(3/2)X(3/1)=[Cr2X9](3-).