This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Disulfide is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
In chemistry, a disulfide usually refers to the structural unit composed of a linked pair of sulfur atoms. The disulfide anion is S22−. The term disulfide can also refer to a chemical compound that contains a disulfide center, such as diphenyl disulfide, C6H5S-SC6H5.
Sulfur is usually assigned to the reduced oxidation number −2, described as S2− and called sulfide. It has the electron configuration of a noble gas (argon).
In disulfides, sulfur is only reduced to a state with oxidation number −1. Its configuration then resembles that of chlorine and, like it, has the tendency to form a covalent bond with another S− ion to form a disulfide (S2)2− group. Oxygen can also do this; e.g. in peroxides such as H2O2. In many cases, each of the two sulfur atoms in a disulfide group is covalently bonded to a carbon atom in an organic compound, forming a disulfide bond, sometimes called a disulfide linkage or a disulfide bridge. The tendency is a bit more elaborate in the case of sulfur, which can form polysulfides.
Contents |
Some examples
- Iron disulfide (FeS2), known as the mineral pyrite.
- Disulfur dichloride (S2Cl2), a distillable liquid.
- The amino acid cystine
- The vitamin lipoic acid
- Diphenyl disulfide (Ph2S2).
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Misnomers
Disulfide is also used to refer to compounds that contain two sulfide (S2−) centers. The compound carbon disulfide, CS2 is described with the structural formula i.e. S=C=S. This molecule is not a disulfide in the sense that it lacks a S-S bond. Similarly, molybdenum disulfide, MoS2, is not a disulfide in the sense again that its sulfur atoms are not linked.
 |
 |
|
|
|
See also
References
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 5 August 2008, at 11:03.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Disulfide".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.