Problem

When AlCl3 and OPCl3 are mixed, the product, Cl3Al—O—PCl3 has a nearly linear Al—O— P ar...

When AlCl3 and OPCl3 are mixed, the product, Cl3Al—O—PCl3 has a nearly linear Al—O— P arrangement (bond angle 176° ).

a. Suggest an explanation for this unusually large angle.

b. The O—P distance in Cl3Al—O—PCl3 is only slightly longer than the comparable distance in OPCl3 even though the latter has a formal double bond. Suggest why there is so little difference in these bond distances. (See N. Burford, A. D. Phillips, R. W. Schurko, R. E. Wasylishen, J. F. Richardson, Chem. Commun., 1997 , 2363.)

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