Sciencemadness Discussion Board

lead salts

caveman - 21-10-2013 at 00:20

Can anyone tell me if Lead oxychloride is the same as Lead chloride hydroxide?

woelen - 21-10-2013 at 00:59

An oxychloride in many cases is a so-called basic chloride, which is the product of hydrolysis of a chloride salt in aqueous solution, or the product of precipitation of a chloride salt.

In the case of lead(II) chloride, I can imagine that if a solution of PbCl2 in fairly conc. HCl is precipitated by adding alkali, then a mixed chloride/hydroxide is precipitated of non-stoichiometric nature, e.g. PbClx(OH)2-x. Such a compound can be regarded as a hydrous oxide (i.e. 2OH(-) can be regarded as O(2-).H2O).

For many situations, the description of basic salts is not precise and no real distinction is made between hydrous oxo-species and hydroxides.