PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY OF LIQUIDS, cilt.46, sa.1, ss.1-8, 2008 (SCI-Expanded)
Motivated by results on molecular clusters formed from octahedral connectivity in NbF5 and by simulation and neutron diffraction studies of liquid AlCl3 and related materials, we discuss the gaseous n-mers of AlCl3 built from corner-sharing or edge-sharing tetrahedra. We use an interionic force-law model to evaluate the energetics of these clusters and examine their relevance to liquid structure near freezing and at higher temperatures as determined by means of classical molecular-dynamics simulation.