POTENTIAL-ENERGY INTERACTIONS IN SOLID DICHLORINE

Hsu and Williams have proposed a model to explain the observed centric space group and cell dimensions of crystalline dichlorine. Although this model satisfies the “force-free” criterion, it requires the dichlorine molecules to be dipolar. We believe that it is physically unrealistic to assign a permanent dipole to a homopolar diatomic molecule in a centric lattice. Moreover, the model invokes partial intermolecular bonding between nearest atomic neighbors. If there is no restriction on the number of such neighbors, it can be shown that there are several crystalline structures available to dichlorine which would be more stable than that observed. The observed crystal structure can be explained in terms of anisotropic dispersion-repulsion forces and quadrupole-quadrupole interactions. © 1979, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.