Lead(II) chloride
chemical compound
Lead(II) chloride (PbCl2) is an inorganic compound which is a white solid under ambient conditions. It is poorly soluble in water. Lead(II) chloride is one of the most important lead-based reagents. It also occurs naturally in the form of the mineral cotunnite.
Structure and properties
In solid PbCl2, each lead ion is coordinated by nine chloride ions in a tricapped triangular prism formation — six lie at the vertices of a triangular prism and three lie beyond the centers of each rectangular prism face. The 9 chloride ions are not equidistant from the central lead atom, 7 lie at 280–309 pm and 2 at 370 pm. PbCl2 forms white orthorhombic needles.
In the gas phase, PbCl2 molecules have a bent structure with the Cl–Pb–Cl angle being 98° and each Pb–-Cl bond distance being 2.44 Å. Such PbCl2 is emitted from internal combustion engines that use ethylene chloride-tetraethyllead additives for antiknock purposes.
PbCl2 is sparingly soluble in water, solubility product Ksp = 1.7×10−5 at 20 °C. It is one of only 5 commonly water-insoluble chlorides, the other 4 being thallium(I) chloride, silver chloride (AgCl) with Ksp = 1.8×10−10, copper(I) chloride (CuCl) with Ksp = 1.72×10−7 and mercury(I) chloride (Hg2Cl2) with Ksp = 1.3×10−18.
Synthesis
Solid lead(II) chloride precipitates upon addition of aqueous chloride sources (HCl, NaCl, KCl) to aqueous solutions of lead(II) compounds, such as lead(II) nitrate and lead(II) acetate:
Pb(NO3)2 + 2 HCl → PbCl2(s) + 2 HNO3
It also forms by treatment of basic lead(II) compounds such as Lead(II) oxide and lead(II) carbonate.
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