[pcat]

hey everyone; im new to the board.. i thought i would give it a try; since im not having any luck anywhere else anyways,

im working on a problem that involves [CuCl4]2- asking why it has a flattened tetrahedral structure.  Copper (II) is a d9 electron configuration.  Does this have to involve Jahn Teller effect? I am confused about this because CuCl4 only has FOUR ligands where as JT involves octahedral complexes.

Can someone help me out to explain why it has a flattened tetrahedral structure?
Thanks so much.

[maxyoung]

jahn-teller effect applies to most nonlinear complexes, not only octahedral complexes. see the original statement of the theorem.