Europium(III) iodide

Europium(III) iodide is an inorganic compound, a salt containing europium and iodine with the chemical formula .

Preparation

Europium metal reacts directly with iodine to form europium(III) iodide:

Hydrated europium(III) iodide can be prepared dissolving europium(III) oxide or europium(III) carbonate in hydroiodic acid:

Europium powder reacts with iodine in THF to form a THF adduct of europium(III) iodide:

The adduct can be formulated more simply as .

Structure

Europium(III) iodide adopts the bismuth(III) iodide (BiI₃) crystal structure type, with octahedral coordination of each Eu³⁺ ion by 6 iodide ions.

Reactivity

Europium(III) iodide is used as the starting material for two of the main ways of preparing europium(II) iodide:

Reduction with hydrogen gas at 350 Ã‚°C:

Thermal decomposition at 200 Ã‚°C, a disproportionation reaction:

Europium(III) iodide nonahydrate, EuI₃·9H₂O, thermally decomposes to europium(II) iodide dihydrate, EuI₂·H₂O.

References