Structure of Liquid Chloroform as Investigated by Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Diffraction

The structure of liquid chloroform has been investigated by energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction. For the stability of the sample thickness, even for a volatile liquid, a glass capillary tube has been used as a sample container. The intensity function has been accounted for by a bcc (body-centered cubic)-like local lattice structure model with a lattice constant of 6.24 A. However, it has been necessary to replace a fraction (34%) of the nearest neighbors by super-near configurations in which molecules are rather tightly correlated. The correlation is, however, rapidly lost as the distance between molecules increases, and the long range structure is characterized by a large Prins parameter. The structure of liquid chloroform is much less ordered than that of carbon tetrachloride.