Sulfur is the 10th most abundant element in the universe. Today, it’s most common use is in the manufacture of sulfuric acid, which in turn goes into fertilizers, batteries, and cleaners. It’s also used to refine oil and in processing ores.
Much qualitative structure-property correlations between diradical character and emerging molecular properties of sulfur are known. Now, a scientist at Prof. Juan Casado, from the Department of Physical Chemistry of the UMA, in collaboration with the University of Oregon (U.S.A.) and Osaka (Japan) have discovered whole new properties of the sulfur atom.
The scientist named Prof. Juan Casado has proved that lone pair electrons that characterize sulfur atom can also repel unpaired or itinerant electrons that are present in their environment.
CREDIT
Professor of Physical Chemistry of the University of Malaga, Juan Casado Cordón
According to Casado, the diradical particles (a molecular species with two electrons possessing two ‘degenerated’ molecular orbitals) utilized in the study- more steady, functional and tough are fundamentally essential in chemistry, and in addition in other sciences. For example, they are related with the synthetic reactivity in burning or are available in the persistence cycles of tropospheric ozone, and, additionally, later on, they will be a piece of “magnetic plastic”.
Casado explained, “This study evidences that the conventional conciliatory behavior of sulfur -electron donor- also shows a hostile side. These findings demonstrate that sulfur, under some circumstances, can also cause “magnetic repulsion.”
The findings are published in the journal Nature.