Asked by Arora

Which one is more stable, [PCl4]+ or [PCl6]- ? Why?

I'm thinking it has something to do with the fact that the former is tetrahedral and the latter is octahedral, but I'm not sure. Does that affect stability?

Answers

Answered by DrBob222
[PCl4]^+ is sp3 which is a tetragedral shape; however, note that the electrons fit exactly; i.e., P = 5 and 4*7 = 28 for Cl for total of 33 for PCl4 or 32 for [PCl4]^+.

For PCl6, it is octahedral which is d2sp3; however, adding an electron to make it [PCl6]^- adds an extra electron to an already filled d2sp3 and it really has no place to go. So I think the latter is less stable.
See this site.
https://www.google.com/search?q=lewis+stgructure+PCl4%5E%7C&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1
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