Tungsten chloride is an inorganic compound

Inorganic compound

Inorganic compounds have traditionally been considered to be of inanimate, non-biological origin. In contrast, organic compounds have an explicit biological origin. However, over the past century, the classification of inorganic vs organic compounds has become less important to scientists,...

 with the formula W

Tungsten

Tungsten , also known as wolfram , is a chemical element with the chemical symbol W and atomic number 74.A hard, rare metal under standard conditions when uncombined, tungsten is found naturally on Earth only in chemical compounds. It was identified as a new element in 1781, and first isolated as...

₂Cl

Chlorine

Chlorine is the chemical element with atomic number 17 and symbol Cl. It is the second lightest halogen, found in the periodic table in group 17. The element forms diatomic molecules under standard conditions, called dichlorine...

₁₀. This compound is analogous in many ways to the more familiar molybdenum pentachloride.

The material is prepared by reduction of tungsten hexachloride

Tungsten hexachloride

Tungsten hexachloride is the chemical compound of tungsten and chlorine with the formula WCl6. This dark violet blue species exists as a volatile solid under standard conditions. It is an important starting reagent in the preparation of tungsten compounds. WCl6 is a rare example of a...

. One method involves the use of tetrachloroethylene

Tetrachloroethylene

Tetrachloroethylene, also known under its systematic name tetrachloroethene and many other names, is a chlorocarbon with the formula Cl2C=CCl2. It is a colourless liquid widely used for dry cleaning of fabrics, hence it is sometimes called "dry-cleaning fluid." It has a sweet odor detectable by...

 as the reductant:

2 WCl₆ + C₂Cl₄ → W₂Cl₁₀ + C₂Cl₆

The blue green solid is volatile under vacuum and slightly soluble in nonpolar solvents. The compound is oxophilic and is highly reactive toward Lewis bases.

The compound exists as a dimer, with a pair of octahedral tungsten(V) centres bridged

Bridging ligand

A bridging ligand is a ligand that connects two or more atoms, usually metal ions. The ligand may be atomic or polyatomic. Virtually all complex organic compounds can serve as bridging ligands, so the term is usually restricted to small ligands such as pseudohalides or to ligands that are...

by two chloride ligands.