This compound is analogous in many ways to the more familiar molybdenum pentachloride.

One method involves the use of tetrachloroethylene as the reductant[2] The blue green solid is volatile under vacuum and slightly soluble in nonpolar solvents.

The compound is oxophilic and is highly reactive toward Lewis bases.

When the same reduction is conducted in the presence of tetraphenylarsonium chloride, one obtains instead the hexachlorotungstate(V) salt:[3] The compound exists as a dimer, with a pair of octahedral tungsten(V) centres bridged by two chloride ligands.

The compound evaporates to give trigonal bipyramidal WCl5 monomers.