Synthesis and characterization of tetraethylammonium tetrachlorocobaltate crystals

Single crystals of tetraethylammonium tetrachlorocobaltate were grown by solution method and characterized through single crystal X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetric studies (DSC) and infrared spectroscopic technique (IR). The crystals were bright, transparent and blue coloured. The unit cell parameters were found to bea =b = 90363 A andc = 14.9879 A and α = β = γ = 90°, showing tetragonal lattice from the XRD data. Thermogravimetric analysis showed a loss of weight at 683 K from which the decomposition reaction was formulated. Thermal anomalies were found for this crystal at temperatures 200 K, 220 K in the cooling cycle and at temperatures 200 K, 240 K in the heating cycle, respectively which showed that this crystal was associated with first order phase transition. All the vibrational frequencies corresponding to (TEA)+ ions and CoCl 4 2− ions were assigned from the IR spectral data of this crystal.