Magnesium perchlorate anhydrate,Mg(ClO4)2, from laboratory X‐ray powder data

The previously unknown crystal structure of magnesium perchlorate anhydrate, determined and refined from laboratory X‐ray powder diffraction data, represents a new structure type. The title compound was obtained by heating magnesium perchlorate hexahydrate at 523 K for 2 h under vacuum and it crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P2₁/c. The asymmetric unit contains one Mg (site symmetry on special position 2a), one Cl and four O sites (on general positions 4e). The structure consists of a three‐dimensional network resulting from the corner‐sharing of MgO₆ octahedra and ClO₄ tetrahedra. Each MgO₆ octahedron share corners with six ClO₄ tetrahedra. Each ClO₄ tetrahedron shares corners with three MgO₆ octahedra, with one O‐atom corner dangling. The ClO₄ tetrahedra are oriented in such a way that one‐dimensional channels parallel to [100] are formed between the dangling O atoms.