Vanadium chloride is the 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

Chemical formula

A chemical formula or molecular formula is a way of expressing information about the atoms that constitute a particular chemical compound....

 VCl₂. This purple solid is the most reduced vanadium chloride. Like other metal dihalides, it is a polymer. Vanadium(II) chloride dissolves in water to give purple solutions.

Preparation, properties, and related compounds

It is prepared by thermal decomposition of VCl₃, which leaves a residue of VCl₂:

2 VCl₃ → VCl₂ + VCl₄

VBr₂ and VI₂ are structurally and chemically similar to the dichloride. All have the d³ configuration, with a quartet ground state, akin to Cr(III).

Vanadium dichloride is a powerful reducing species, being able to reduce sulfoxides to sulfides, organic azides to amines, as well as reductively coupling some alkyl halides. VCl₂ dissolves in water to give the hexaaquo ion

Metal aquo complex

Metal aquo complexes are coordination compounds containing metal ions with only water as a ligand. These complexes are the predominant species in aqueous solutions of many metal salts, such as metal nitrates, sulfates, and perchlorates. They have the general stoichiometry [Mn]z+. Their behavior...

[V(H₂O)₆]²⁺. Evaporation of such solutions produces crystals of [V(H₂O)₆]Cl₂.