Sulfur polythionates

Certain of the above reactions are of practical importance. The oxidation of hydrogen sulfide in a flame is one means for producing the sulfur dioxide required for a sulfuric acid plant. Oxidation of hydrogen sulfide by sulfur dioxide is the basis of the Claus process for sulfur recovery. The Claus reaction can also take place under mil der conditions in the presence of water, which catalyzes the reaction. However, the oxidation of hydrogen sulfide by sulfur dioxide in water is a complex process leading to the formation of sulfur and polythionic acids, the mixture known as Wackenroeder s Hquid (105). 

In solution, the hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide [7446-09-5] thus formed react to producing polythionic acids and elemental sulfur. 

When the Claus reaction is carried out in aqueous solution, the chemistry is complex and involves polythionic acid intermediates (105,211). A modification of the Claus process (by Shell) uses hydrogen or a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide to reduce sulfur dioxide, carbonyl sulfide, carbon disulfide, and sulfur mixtures that occur in Claus process off-gases to hydrogen sulfide over a cobalt molybdate catalyst at ca 300°C (230). 

Thiosulfuric Acid. Thiosulfuiic acid [14921 -76-7] is relatively unstable and thus cannot be recovered from aqueous solutions. In laboratory preparation, a lead thiosulfate [26265-65-6] solution is treated with H2S to precipitate PbS, or a concentrated solution of sodium thiosulfate [7772-98-7] is treated with HCl and cooled to — 10°C to crystalline NaCl. Aqueous solutions of thiosulfuric acid spontaneously decompose to yield sulfur, SO2, and polythionic acids, H2S O. Thiosulfuric acid is a strong acid comparable to sulfuric acid. Dissociation constants, = 0.25, = 0.018, have been... 

Barium sulfide solutions undergo slow oxidation in air, forming elemental sulfur and a family of oxidized sulfur species including the sulfite, thiosulfate, polythionates, and sulfate. The elemental sulfur is retained in the dissolved bquor in the form of polysulfide ions, which are responsible for the yellow color of most BaS solutions. Some of the mote highly oxidized sulfur species also enter the solution. Sulfur compound formation should be minimized to prevent the compounds made from BaS, such as barium carbonate, from becoming contaminated with sulfur. 

Attempts to prepare thiosulfuric acid by acidification of stable thiosulfates are invariably thwarted by the ready decomposition of the free acid in the presence of water. The reaction is extremely complex and depends on the conditions used, being dominated by numerous redox interconversions amongst the products these can include sulfur (partly as cyclo-Sf,), SO2, H2S, HiS,. H2SO4 and various polythionates In the absence of water, however, these reactions are avoided and the parent acid is more stable it decomposes quantitatively below 0° according... 

Fig. 1-19. The sulfur Ka spectrum from a series of compounds containing sulfur at different valences. The triplet in all the polythionates results from the superposition of the al, a2 doublets of sulfur at two different valences. (Courtesy of Faessler and Goehring, N aturwissenschaften, 39, 169.)...

Although these equations held true for some strains of bacteria under some growth conditions, they did not help explain the commonly observed quantitative conversion of both sulfur atoms of thiosulfate to sulfate, rather than the liberation of the sulfane-sulfur mainly as elemental sulfur. During the 1960s, cyclic reactions of polythionates and other polysulfur compounds continued to be postulated as mechanisms for thiosulfate and polythionate metabolism (Trudinger 1967), but none of these was supported at the time by strong biochemical evidence. The time was opportune for a new approach to the problem of thiosulfate oxidation in thiobacilli. 

The possible roles in sulfur (and sulfide or sulfane-) oxidation of a sulfur dioxygenase or of electron-transport-linked hydration/dehydrogenation are outlined above, but the fate of the sulfite product may be more complex than previously considered. Vishniac and Santer (1957) showed that S-labeled sulfide was rapidly oxidized first to thiosulfate (and polythionates) and then to sulfate by T. thioparus. This observation was incorporated into the original Peck scheme (Eqs. 15.13-15.17) by Peck and Fisher (1962), who realized that the complete oxidation of thiosulfate (after reductive scission to sulfite and sulfide Eq. 15.3) could be explained if there was recycling of sulfide to produce thiosulfate ... 

Oxidation of sulfide will affect rates of sulfate reduction only if sulfate is the end product of such oxidation. Many compounds with oxidation states intermediate between sulfide and sulfate may be formed instead. Although many details of the oxidation pathways remain to be clarified, evidence suggests that sulfate is formed. Oxidation of sulfide by phototrophic microorganisms results in production of elemental sulfur, sulfate, or polythionates (e.g., 171). Members of each of the three families of phototrophic sulfur-oxidizing bacteria are capable of carrying the oxidation all the way to sulfate elemental sulfur and polythionates are intermediates that are stored until lower concentrations of sulfide are encountered (131, 171). Colorless sulfur... 

A few mechanisms were postulated for this reaction (6). No matter what mechanism is considered, the oxidation of elemental sulfur or thiosulfate is accompanied by reductive cleavage of the sulfur-sulfur bridges. In the case of sulfur, the intermediate involved is a cyclic form of sulfur, probably Ss, although there is little difference observed for different allotrophic forms of sulfur such as rhombic, precipitated, and amphorous. These cyclic sulfides form the basis of polysulfanes and polythionates which could be metabolized readily by Thiobacilli (as shown in Figure 3). Actually, sulfur oxidation begins with its reduction, in which the gluathione-sulfhydryl groups located near the cell surface take part ... 

The polarographic and potentiometric methods are not HPLC-run. The polarographic method relies upon the measurement of half-wave potentials of various sulfur compounds reacting with a mercury electrode. It is sensitive to submicromolar concentrations (Luther, pers. com.). While sulfide, thiosulfate, polysulfide and polythionates can be measured, the initial sample must be subdivided and pretreated in different ways. The disadvantages are that sample preparation ana analysis are time-consuming and there is no way to preserve samples for later analysis nor to study organic thiols with precision., ... 

A major contribution of this paper was pointing out the importance of bioturbation and bioirrigation on chemical processes associated with carbonate dissolution. In the movement of sulfidic sediment from depth to near the interface by biological processes, oxidation of the sediment produces sulfuric acid which ends up titrating alkalinity, lowering pH, and thus lowers saturation state (e.g., Berner and Westrich, 1985). Actually this process is very complex, involving many reactive intermediate compounds such as sulfite, thiosulfate, polythionates, etc. Aller and Rude (1988) demonstrated an additional complication to this process. Mn oxides may oxidize iron sulfides by a bacterial pathway that causes the saturation state of the solution to rise with respect to carbonate minerals, rather than decrease as is the case when oxidation takes place with oxygen. 

The average concentrations of reduced inorganic sulfur species in the anoxic zone of the Black Sea measured using a new colorimetric method developed by Volkov [61,62] are summarized in Table 3. Presented elemental sulfur data refer to the stun of elemental sulfur allotropes (zero-valent sulfur) and the zero-valent sulfur derived from some fraction (n - 1) of the original polysulfide S 2. Thiosulfate data in the table represent the total amount of thiosulfate, sulfite, and polythionates. At some stations in the Black Sea, Volkov [61] observed a concentration maximum of elemental sulfur at the oxic/anoxic interface associated with sulfide oxidation by dissolved oxygen and/or Mn oxyhydroxides. Increasing with depth, elemental sulfur concentrations are probably explained by the ongoing process of polysulfide formation... 

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