NICKEL DICHLORIDE - A NONLINEAR MOLECULE IN A NITROGEN MATRIX - IMPLICATIONS FOR STRUCTURE DETERMINATIONS IN CRYOGENIC MATRICES

Nickel dichloride is found to be a strongly bent molecule (bond angle c. 130-degrees) in a nitrogen matrix using Ni-58/Ni-60 and Cl-35/Cl-37 isotopic data on v3 coupled with the harmonic approximation. In the case of the Cl-35/Cl-37 experiment the intense central component of the triplet in a 1:1 enrichment is effectively eliminated by a novel vaporization technique. These results demonstrate a change in shape with matrix gas and cast doubt on structural determinations in matrices, notably for co-ordinatively unsaturated molecules or where bonding forces are not highly directional.