Crystal structures of Ca(ClO4)2·4H2O and Ca(ClO4)2·6H2O.

The title compounds, calcium perchlorate tetra-hydrate and calcium perchlorate hexa-hydrate, were crystallized at low temperatures according to the solid-liquid phase diagram. The structure of the tetra-hydrate consists of one Ca(2+) cation eightfold coordinated in a square-anti-prismatic fashion by four water mol-ecules and four O atoms of four perchlorate tetra-hedra, forming chains parallel to [01-1] by sharing corners of the ClO4 tetra-hedra. The structure of the hexa-hydrate contains two different Ca(2+) cations, each coordinated by six water mol-ecules and two O atoms of two perchlorate tetra-hedra, forming [Ca(H2O)6(ClO4)]2 dimers by sharing two ClO4 tetra-hedra. The dimers are arranged in sheets parallel (001) and alternate with layers of non-coordinating ClO4 tetra-hedra. O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds between the water mol-ecules as donor and ClO4 tetra-hedra and water mol-ecules as acceptor groups lead to the formation of a three-dimensional network in the two structures. Ca(ClO4)2·6H2O was refined as a two-component inversion twin, with an approximate twin component ratio of 1:1 in each of the two structures.