The yttrium(III) ion is found by means of extended X-ray absorption fine-structure spectroscopy (EXAFS)
and large angle X-ray scattering (LAXS) to be hydrated by eight water molecules in aqueous solution. The
EXAFS data show a slightly asymmetric distribution of the Y−O bond distances with the centroid of the
distribution at 2.368(5) Å. The width of the distribution implies a positional disorder of about 0.1 Å on top
of the thermally induced variation in the Y−O bond distances. The aqueous solutions and the solid compound
[Y(OH2)8]Cl3·(15-crown-5), in which eight water oxygen atoms form a distorted bicapped trigonal prism
around the hydrated yttrium(III) ion, show very similar near-edge and EXAFS spectra. For aqueous solutions
the LAXS data give a mean Y−O bond distance of 2.365(5) Å and show the presence of a second hydration
sphere consisting of approximately 16 oxygen atoms at a mean Y···O distance of 4.40(4) Å.
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