Talk:Vanadium tetrachloride

Vanadium pentachloride

Isn't it also a steric problem that VCl₅ does not exist, that five chlorine atoms just don't fit around a vanadium atom (or at least the bonds had to be elongated and thus destabilized)? Or is this explanation insufficient, because it would find other arrangements (e.g. VCl₄⁺ Cl^- )? --130.83.100.213 (talk) 11:28, 10 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Since the covalent radius of the vanadium atom is bigger than that of the phosphorous atom, and since phosphorous pentachloride is well-known, I wouldn't say that this is a steric problem. Besides the "oxidant theory" in the article, the instability of VCl₅ may also be caused by (lack of) orbital hybridisation, since the compound VOCl₃ exists and doesn't immediately decompose to release chlorine. --79.243.239.89 (talk) 12:22, 14 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]