A glass capillary cell for in situ powder X-ray diffraction of condensed volatile compounds. Solid HCFC-123a and HCFC-124.

A rotating glass capillary cell with a gas handling system has been built to allow in situ studies by powder X-ray diffraction. The cell can be used to condense volatile compounds, or to follow solid-state chemical reactions under vacuum or at gas pressures up to around 7 x 10(5) Pa. Using the cell, cooled by a stream of helium gas, the solid phases of 1,2-dichlorotrifluoroethane (HCFC-123a) and 2-chloro-1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane (HCFC-124) have been investigated using powder synchrotron X-ray radiation. These were found to have disordered hexagonal structures, with a = 4.018 (5), c = 6.553 (1) A and a = 4.048 (1), c = 6.625 (1) A, respectively, at 64 K.