Was ist „Molybdänsäure”︁ oder „Polymolybdänsäure”︁?

What is “Molybdic Acid” or “Polymolybdic Acid”? According to a comparative study of the literature, supplemented by well-aimed experimental investigations and equilibrium calculations, the terms “molybdic acid” or “polymolybdic acid”, used for many substances, species, or solutions in the literature, are applicable to a species, a solution, and two solids:

• a) The monomeric molybdic acid, most probably having the formula MoO₂(OH)₂(H₂O)₂(? H₂MoO₄, aq), exists in (aqueous) solution only and never exceeds a concentration of ≈ 10^?3 M since at higher concentrations it reacts with other monomemeric molybdenum (VI) species to give anionic or cationic polymers.
• b) A concentrated (>0.1 M Mo^VI) aqueous molybdate solution of degree of acidification P = 2 (realized, e. g., by a solution of one of the Mo^VI oxides; by any molybdate solutions whose cations have been exchanged by H₃O⁺ on a cation exchanger; by suitable acidification of a molybdate solution) contains 8 H₃O⁺ and the well-known polyanion Mo₃₆O₁₁₂(H₂O)₁₆^8? exactly in the stoichiometric proportions.
• c) A glassy substance, obtained from an alkali metal salt-free solution prepared according to (b), refers to the compound (H₃O)₈[Mo₃₆O₁₁₂(H₂O)₁₆]·xH₂O, x = 25—29.
• d) A solid having the ideal composition [(H₃O)Mo₅O₁₅(OH)H₂O·H₂O]∞ consists of a polymolybdate skeleton (the well-known ?decamolybdate”? structure), in the tunnels of which H₃O⁺ and H₂O are intercalate. The structure is very unstable if only H₃O⁺ cations are present, but it is enormously stabilized by a partial exchange of H₃O⁺ by certain alkali or alkaline earth metal cations.

For the compounds MoO₃, MoO₃·H₂O, and MoO₃·2H₂O the term ?molybdic acid”? is unjustified. The commercial product ?molybdic acid, ≈85% MoO₃”? is the well-known polymolybdate (NH₄)₂O·4 MoO₃ with a layer structure of the polyanion.