Rubidium compounds with oxygen

That the metals of highest atomic number should form compounds with the larger numbers of sulphur atoms is in accordance with their behaviour towards oxygen, where the superoxidcs of rubidium and caesium are the most stable. The polysulphides consist of zig-zag chains of sulphur atoms with the metal atoms situated terminally. 

IODINE (7553-56-2) A powerful oxidizer. Material or vapors react violently with reducing agents, combustible materials, alkali metals, acetylene, acetaldehyde, antimony, boron, bromine pentafluoride, bromine trifluoride, calcium hydride, cesium, cesium oxide, chlorine trifluoride, copper hydride, dipropylmercury, fluoride, francium, lithium, metal acetylides, metal carbides, nickel monoxide, nitryl fluoride, perchloryl perchlorate, polyacetylene, powdered metals, rubidium, phosphorus, sodium, sodium phosphinate, sulfur, sulfur trioxide, tetraamine, trioxygen difluoride. Forms heat- or shock-sensitive compounds with ammonia, silver azide, potassium, sodium, oxygen difluoride. Incompatible with aluminum-titanium alloy, barium acetylide, ethanol, formamide, halogens, mercmic oxide, mercurous chloride, oxygen, pyridine, pyrogallic acid, salicylic acid sodium hydride, sodium salicylate, sulfides, and other materials. 

Potassium, rubidium, and cesium react with oxygen to form compounds that contain the 02 ion, which we call the superoxide ion. For example, potassium forms potassium superoxide, KO2 ... 

Metals react with nonmetals. These reactions are oxidation-reduction reactions. (See Chapters 4 and 18). Oxidation of the metal occurs in conjunction with reduction of the nonmetal. In most cases, only simple compounds will form. For example, oxygen, 02, reacts with nearly all metals to form oxides (compounds containing O2-). Exceptions are the reaction with sodium where sodium peroxide, Na202, forms and the reaction with potassium, rubidium, and cesium where the superoxides, K02, Rb02, and Cs02 form. 

A quite new type of antibiotic and one of the few naturally-occurring boron compounds is boromycin (86). Hydrolytic cleavage of D-valine with the M(7) hydroxides gave caesium and rubidium salts of this antibiotic, and crystal structure analysis established the formula as (XIIT). The rubidium ion is irregularly coordinated by eight oxygen atoms. Experiments with models showed that the cation site would be the natural place for the—NH3+ end of the D-valine residue, and the whole structure raises the possibility that transport of larger alkali metals is related to the N-ends of peptides and proteins. 

For XV) complexes have been obtained with molecular ratios 1 1 for potassium and sodium salts, 2 3 for rubidium and ammonium thiocyanate, and 1 2 for caesium thiocyanate. The rubidium and ammonium thiocyanate compounds are isomorphous, and the structure of the former was the first of this type to be determined 92). In the crystal there is a 1 1 complex and a molecule of crystallisation of un-complexed (XT). The metal is coordinated by six coplanar oxygen atoms... 

Alkyllithium compounds as well as polymer-lithium associate not only with themselves but also with other alkalimetal alkyls and alkoxides. In a polymerization initiated with combinations of alkyllithiums and alkalimetal alkoxides, dynamic tautomeric equilibria between carbon-metal bonds and oxygen-metal bonds exist and lead to propagation centers having the characteristics of both metals, usually somewhere in between. This way, one can prepare copolymers of various randomness and various vinyl unsaturation. This reaction is quite general as one can also use sodium, rubidium or cesium compounds to get different effects. 

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