Stability of MoCl5GICs in various solutions

Stability of graphite intercalation compounds of MoCl5 (MoCl5GICs) with stage-2 and -4 structure was studied in various solutions. The change in the X-ray powder pattern of these GICs could be hardly observed, so they were proved to be stable not only in water at room temperature but also in boiling water, acetone, KCl-saturated aqueous solution and CCl4, all of which can dissolve MoCl5 itself. In boiling water, however, the stability of GICs was found to depend strongly on the flake size of the host graphite of the starting GICs: decomposition was observed on those with flake size of 10 μm, but those of size 400 μm were perfectly stable.