Spectroscopic characterization of crystalline AlF3 phases

A comprehensive spectroscopic characterization of all known crystalline AlF3 Phases (alpha-, beta-, eta-, kappa-, theta-AlF3) is presented for the first time in this study. Beside their X-ray diffraction powder patterns, which were already published in the literature, Al-27 and F-19 MAS NMR, FT IR and XPS spectroscopic techniques were applied for all phases in a consistent manner. For all phases prepared the utilization of Al-27 satellite transition (SATRAS) NMR allowed to determine the quadrupolar parameters of the aluminium sites including their distributions. In addition, eta-AlF3 was isolated with high phase purity and characterized following a new preparation path different from those known so far in the literature. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.