THE CHARACTER OF THE COMPOUND FORMED BY THE 
ADDITION OF AMMONIA TO ETHYL-PHOS- 
PHO-PL ATIN O-CHDORIDE* 
BY CHAS. H. HERTY AND R. O. E. DAVIS 
By heating together phosphorus pentachloride and spongy plati- 
num. Baudrimont 1 obtained the phospho-platino-chloride PtCl,-. 
PCI,. Later Schutzenberger prepared the compound PtCl 2 .2PCl 5 
by treating Baudrimont ’s salt with phosphorus trichloride and he 
studied the various derivatives of these two substances. 
The apparent analogy of these compounds to those of platinous 
chloride with ammonia led one of us (Herty) in 1901 to investi- 
gate them further by physico-chemical methods, in order to 
determine whether the analogy was real and therefore whether 
they conformed to Werner’s 3 extension of the valence hypothesis. 
If so, various possibilities of isomerism at once suggested them- 
selves. 
These views, in abstract form, were presented to the commit- 
tee in charge of the C. M. Warren Research Fund and a grant was 
made for the purchase of platinum. Work was begun at once, 
hut unfortunately a call to another field made impossible the com- 
pletion of the investigation. The platinum was recovered, sold, 
and the grant returned. 
1 Ann. chim. phys. [4], 2, 47. 
2 Bull. sor. chim. [2], 17, 482; 18, 101, 148. 
3 Z. nnorg. C him., 3, 267. 
I Ibid., 37, 394 ; 43, 34. 
^Reprinted from the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 30. 
p. 1084. 1908. 
92 
[November 
