Preparation,Single Crystal Structure Analysis,and Thermal Behaviour of the Acidic Mercury(I) Phosphate (Hg2)2(H2PO4)(PO4)

Yellowish single crystals of acidic mercury(I) phosphate (Hg₂)₂(H₂PO₄)(PO₄) were obtained at 200 °C under hydrothermal conditions in 32% HF from a starting complex of microcrystalline (Hg₂)₂P₂O₇. Refinement of single crystal data converged at a conventional residual RF² > 2σ(F²)] = 3.8% (C2/c, Z = 8, a = 9.597(2) Å, b = 12.673(2) Å, c = 7.976(1) Å, β = 110.91(1)°, V = 906.2(2) ų, 1426 independent reflections > 2σ out of 4147 reflections, 66 variables). The crystal structure consists of Hg₂²⁺‐dumbbells and discrete phosphate groups H₂PO₄^– and PO₄^3–. The Hg₂²⁺ pairs are built of two crystallographically independent Hg atoms with a distance d(Hg1–Hg2) = 2.5240(6) Å. The oxygen coordination sphere around the mercury atoms is asymmetric with three O atoms for Hg1 and four O atoms for Hg2. The oxygen atoms belong to the different PO₄ tetrahedra, which in case of H₂PO₄‐groups are connected by hydrogen bonding. Upon heating over 230 °C, (Hg₂)₂(H₂PO₄)(PO₄) condenses to (Hg₂)₂P₂O₇, which in turn disproportionates at higher temperatures into Hg₂P₂O₇ and elemental mercury.