Aluminium monochloride
Aluminium monochloride, or chloridoaluminium is the metal halide with the formula AlCl. Aluminium monochloride as a molecule is thermodynamically stable at high temperature and low pressure only.[1] This compound is produced as a step in the Alcan process to smelt aluminium from an aluminium-rich alloy. When the alloy is placed in a reactor that is heated to 1,300 °C and mixed with aluminium trichloride, a gas of aluminium monochloride is produced.[2]
It then disproportionates into aluminium melt and aluminium trichloride upon cooling to 900 °C.
This molecule has been detected in the interstellar medium, where molecules are so dilute that intermolecular collisions are unimportant.[3]
See also
References
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