The Decomposition Products of Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6) with Metals Dissolved in Liquid Ammonia

Abstract

Sulfur hexafluoride is a highly chemically inert gas with several important industrial applications. It is stable against fused alkali, oxygen and ammonia, even at several hundred degrees Celsius. In this work, the reactions between metals (Li-Cs, Sr, Ba, Eu, Yb) dissolved in liquid ammonia and SF 6 are reported, leading to mono-or bivalent fluorides and sulfides. To this end, SF 6 was passed into a cooled solution of the respective metal in liquid ammonia. The identity of the products was confirmed by powder X-ray diffraction and IR spectroscopy. The reactions could lead to a cheap and effective disposal method of the present amounts of stored SF 6 , for possible generation of H 2 S and HF.

Non‐coordinated and Hydrogen Bonded Phenolate Anions as One‐Electron Reducing Agents

“…In all cases the principal reactions lead to corresponding sulfido and fluoride metal complexes. The activation of SF 6 can also be performed electrochemically [37] or by single‐electron transfer reactions, as demonstrated by the reaction of SF 6 with alkali metals in liquid ammonia [38] . SET reactions of SF 6 with organic electron donors, [39, 40] TEMPOLi [41] and also photo‐activated systems [42] have been described.…”

Repurposing of F-gases: challenges and opportunities in fluorine chemistry

“…Early work in the field of SF 6 degradation described the chemical breakdown of SF 6 using strong reducing agents such as alkali metals. [244][245][246][247] More recently, the field has been reinvigorated by multiple reports of SF 6 activation using transition metals. [248][249][250][251][252][253][254][255] Stoichiometric reactions of low valent, early transition-metal compounds of Ti, Zr, Cr and V with SF 6 produced a range of transition metal fluorides.…”

Complete deconstruction of SF6 by an aluminium(i) compound

“…[14][15][16] The activation and chemical deconstruction of SF6 has been achieved with strong reducing agents or low-valent transition metal complexes. 9,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] The latter approach results in the formation of transition metal fluorides and sulfides. Metal-free approaches have also been reported in which strong nucleophiles directly attack SF6.…”