Control of sulfur number in sulfur-containing compounds: the effect of base type, equivalent of the base, and reaction solvent in synthesizing linear sulfur

Abstract

Abstract Since the properties of sulfur-containing compounds depend on the number of sulfur atoms (sulfur number) contained in the compounds, it is desirable to develop a method to control the sulfur number. A common method for synthesizing sulfur-containing compounds is to mix sulfur with a base to form linear sulfur, which is then reacted with an organic compound to obtain a sulfur-containing compound. In this study, we systematically investigated the relationships between the type of base, equivalent amount of base, the reaction solvent, and the sulfur number in the resulting sulfur-containing compound. The sulfur numbers of sulfur-containing compounds prepared in water were controlled by the equivalent ratio of elemental sulfur (S8) and base. Sulfur-containing compounds with high sulfur values were obtained using solvents with low dielectric constants and with lower base equivalents compared to S8.