• Maxim Khomenko
  • Anton Sokolov
  • Andrey Tverjanovich
  • Maria Bokova
  • Mohammad Kassem
  • Takeshi Usuki
  • Eugene Bychkov

Molten gallium trichloride emerges as a promising solvent for oxidative metal recycling. The use of supercritical fluid enhances the performance and kinetics of metal dissolution due to significantly lower viscosity in the reaction media. Additionally, the dual molecular nature of gallium trichloride, existing as edge-sharing ES-Ga 2Cl 6 dimers at low temperatures and high pressure, or flat trigonal GaCl 3 monomers in the vicinity of the critical point and low pressures, creates the possibility to tailor the chemical geometry to a particular metallic species. Nevertheless, the mechanism of dimer dissociation, local structure, and atomic dynamics in supercritical gallium trichloride fluids are not known. Using first-principles molecular dynamics, validated by comparison with our high-energy X-ray diffraction results, we illustrate the elementary steps in dimer dissociation. These include the formation of intermediate corner-sharing CS-Ga 2Cl 6 dimers, the partial disproportionation of GaCl 3 monomers at high temperatures and low pressures, changes in the local environment of molecular entities, and unusual atomic dynamics in supercritical fluids.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1358
JournalMolecules
Volume29
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 19 Mar 2024

    Research areas

  • dimer dissociation mechanism, first-principles molecular dynamics, supercritical gallium trichloride

ID: 120027781