Spontaneous dissociation of xenon tetroxide: phase and structural changes

XeO(4) is a noble gas compound remarkable for its high explosiveness in the crystalline state and spontaneous explosion at melting temperature. Both phenomena are studied by analyzing potential energy surfaces corresponding to elementary dissociation acts. It is shown that a spontaneous explosion of xenon tetroxide can be explained by a phase transition associated with structural T(d) → D(2h) change and be triggered by rearrangement of electron levels due to the Jahn-Teller effect.