Another plausible set of events might involve the interaction of FeCl 3 with the OPCl 3 before ionization
occurs. This is reasonable to expect because FeCl 3 is a Lewis acid and OPCl 3 is a molecule that contains
atoms having unshared pairs of electrons. This type of interaction could be shown as follows, which
shows FeCl 3 pulling Cl from OPCl 3 so that it is not necessary for prior autoionization to occur: