Gadolinium(III) Chloride
- Page ID
- 35893
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Gadolinium trichloride, GdCl3, is a colorless, hygroscopic, water-soluble solid. It is commonly encountered as hexahydrate GdCl3
6H2O. Gadolinium trichloride can be synthesized by the reaction of solid gadolinium with HCl at 600 °C:
2 Gd + 6 HCl 
2 GdCl3 + 3 H2
Another way to prepare gadolinium trichloride is to synthesize (NH4)2[GdCl5] which can be decomposed at 300°C to GdCl3.
10 NH4Cl + 2 Gd 
2 (NH4)2[GdCl5] + 6 NH3 + 3 H2
2 (NH4)2[GdCl5] {NH4[Gd2Cl7] + 3NH4Cl} 
2 GdCl3 + 4 NH4Cl
Gd3+ ions are of special interest for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), since the Gd3+ species has an f7 electronic configuration with seven unpaired electrons. This results in a highly paramagnetic behavior. As gadolinium salts are toxic, the Gd3+ ion has to complexed by a chelating agent (i.e. H5DTPA, diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid) for usage in biomedical applications.
Contributors and Attributions
- Hans Lohninger (Epina eBook Team)