‘Impossible’ Sodium Chlorides Challenge Foundation of Chemistry

‘Impossible’ Sodium Chlorides Challenge Foundation of Chemistry
Most of the time, if not all the time, we’ve been taught that sodium (Na) and chlorine (Cl) atoms form an ionic bond, creating NaCl (1:1 stoichiometric ratio). I personally have never been taught anything different. Zhang et al. have discovered “compounds such as Na3Cl, Na2Cl, Na3Cl2, NaCl3 and NaCl7  are theoretically stable and have unusual bonding and electronic properties… under pressures as low as 20 GPa.”

Zhang et al. explain that under extreme conditions, the chemical properties of elements may change, and our chemical intuition for simple systems may not be as intuitive as we think. Based on the findings form this research, it would be reasonable to predict that other simple systems, such as KCl, would also exist as “counterintuitive compounds”. It will be exciting to see where research on these “counterintuitive compounds” goes.

Source:
http://www.sci-news.com/othersciences/chemistry/science-sodium-chlorides-foundation-chemistry-01633.html

Reference:
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1310/1310.7674.pdf (Check out page 13 for some crazy crystal structures.)
Image: This is the structure of NaCl3.
Image credit: Prof Artem Oganov.