Sulfur, homopolyatomic cations

Cameron TS, Decken A, Fang M, Ptirsons S, Passmore J, Wood DJ (1999) Oxidation of methyl groups in the reaction of sulfur homopolyatomic cations with acetonitrile formation and crystal structure of the novel trithietanyUum ring. Chem Comm 1801-1802... 

Although it had been known since the early 19th century that elemental sulfur, selenium and tellurium dissolve in oleum to afford intensively colored solutions, it was not until the 1960s that the structures of the responsible homopolyatomic cations began to be elucidated in detail. 

Polyheteroatom Cations. So far, only studies on homopolyatomic cations of oxygen, sulfur, selenium, and tellurium have been discussed. Most of them were of the type X,21. There is a new class of polyatomic cations that comprise two or more heteroatoms. 

The preparation and properties of homopolyatomic cations of the Group VI elements have been reviewed recently.1 The general method described below, involving the oxidation of elemental sulfur, selenium, and tellurium with either antimony pentafluoride or arsenic pentafluoride in liquid sulfur dioxide, is convenient for the preparation of compounds containing these polyatomic cations. The procedure is basically that briefly described previously2 for the preparation of Se8(Sb2F j i )2. 

Acknowledgement This chapter is dedicated to Jack Passmore with whom I had the honor to spent my postdoctoral fellowship and who introduced me to the fascinating world of small but electronically dehcate main group cations such as the homopolyatomic sulfur cations. Thank you This would have been impossible without the fine and bureaucracy-free sponsorship of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung in Bonn, Germany. 

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