Dehydration of CeCl3 (H2O) 7 following standard procedures for making the commonly- used CeCl3/RLi reagent forms a material containing water and not anhydrous CeCl3. Heating CeCl3 (H2O) 7 at 150° C and 0.03 Torr for 12 h forms a material which has an elemental composition of [CeCl3 (H2O)] n, contains water by Karl Fischer analysis, reacts with MeLi to form methane, and crystallizes from THF as [Ce (μ-Cl) 3 (THF)(H2O)] n in ...
