Bismuth(III) Chloride (BiCl3)

Technical Specifications

Product Description & Scientific Applications

Bismuth(III) chloride, BiCl3, is the anhydrous bismuth trichloride (315.34 g/mol): a hygroscopic white to pale yellow solid and the standard entry point to bismuth chemistry. Its three chlorides are displaced by quinolate, amide and phosphinoamine ligands in ethanol, THF or methanol, which is the reactivity behind both its catalysis and its role as a precursor.

It hydrolyses in water to insoluble bismuth oxychloride, so reactions and stock solutions are run in organic media or in concentrated hydrochloric acid.

Applications and Reactions

• Cyclopropanated sugar cyclisation: in the presence of BiCl3 the cyclisation of 1,2-cyclopropanated sugars with olefins is highly diastereoselective, giving 2,2-disubstituted products.
• Trifluoromethylthiolation: activates trifluoromethanesulfanylamide in the palladium-catalysed synthesis of 3-((trifluoromethyl)thio)indoles, where its presence is crucial to the transformation.
• Luminescent Bi(III) complexes: functionalised 8-hydroxyquinolate ligands added in a 3:1 mole ratio in ethanol or THF give homoleptic tris(8-hydroxyquinolate) bismuth(III) complexes.
• Organobismuth synthesis: lithium N-trimethylsilylamides give mono-, di- or triaminobismuthanes according to ligand bulk and stoichiometry, and bis(diisopropylphosphino)amine in methanol gives a catenated bismuth compound in one step.
• Bismuth nanoparticle deposition: bismuth nanocatalysts are electrodeposited onto indium tin oxide from BiCl3 solution by potentiostatic double-pulse techniques.
• Sulfide detection: forms a black precipitate with hydrogen sulfide, the basis of a visual assay for bacterial H2S production.

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