Structure cristalline et polymorphisme du nitrate de cadmium anhydre

Cd(NO₃)₂ undergoes a phase transition at 160°C. The high temperature form is cubic and isomorphic with M(NO₃)₂ (M = Ba, Ca, Sr, Pb). The crystal structure of the low temperature phase has been solved by X-ray diffraction at 20°C, using 774 independent reflections collected with a 4-circle diffractometer. The dimensions of the orthorhombic unit cell are: $\text{a ? c = 7.5073 (14)}$ Å, b = 15.3692 (35) Å, Z = 8, space group Pca2₁. The structure has been refined to the final weighted R = 0.044. The cadmium atoms are nearly in a face-centered arrangement. Each cadmium is octahedrally surrounded by six oxygen, the CdO distances varying from 2.34 to 2.46 Å. Each nitrate group belongs through its three oxygens to three different octahedra. The structural change cubic Cd(NO₃)₂ → orthorhombic Cd(NO₃)₂ is characterized by a small rotation of NO₃ groups in their plane; the face-centered array of cadmium atoms is only slightly modified. The coordination of cadmium atoms changes from 12 to 6, and the approximate doubling of parameter (b) as well as the difference of symmetry can be explained by two different directions of rotation of the NO₃ groups situated in the same plane.