The key difference between sulfur hexafluoride and disulfur tetrafluoride is that sulfur hexafluoride has chemical bonds with equal bond lengths, but disulfur tetrafluoride has chemical bonds with different bond lengths.
Sulfur hexafluoride and disulfur tetrafluoride are inorganic compounds. Both contain sulfur and fluorine atoms in different connectivity and spatial arrangements. However, not only their chemical structure but the physical state and other properties of these two compounds are also different from each other. For example, sulfur hexafluoride is a gaseous compound at room temperature, but disulfur tetrafluoride is a liquid.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Sulfur Hexafluoride
3. What is Disulfur Tetrafluoride
4. Side by Side Comparison – Sulfur Hexafluoride vs Disulfur Tetrafluoride in Tabular Form
5. Summary
What is Sulfur Hexafluoride?
Sulfur hexafluoride is an inorganic compound having the chemical formula SF6. It is a colourless and odourless gaseous compound that is non-flammable and non-toxic. It is categorized as a greenhouse gas. It is also an important electrical insulator. It is a gas that is denser than air.
The geometry of this compound is octahedral. The bond lengths of all the S-F bonds in this molecule are equal. Sulfur hexafluoride has a central sulfur atom attached to six fluorine atoms. Moreover, this molecule is considered as a hypervalent molecule. That means; this molecule has a main group element which has more than eight valence electrons. In this molecule, the sulfur atom has twelve electrons.
Due to the connectivity of atoms and their spatial arrangement, the sulfur hexafluoride molecule is nonpolar and is insoluble in water. But, it is soluble in nonpolar organic solvents. We can produce this compound using the pure elemental sulfur and fluorine. Here we need to expose S8 solid to the F2 gas.
There are many applications of sulfur hexafluoride:
- Used as an electrical insulator electrical industry
- In medicine to provide a tamponade in retinal detachments
- As a contrast agent in ultrasound imaging,
- As a tracer gas in calibrating roadway air dispersion model, etc.
What is Disulfur Tetrafluoride?
Disulfur tetrafluoride is an inorganic compound having the chemical formula S2F4. More precisely, we can write the structural formula for this compound as FSSF3 because it has three fluorine atoms attached to one sulfur atom and the other sulfur atom contains the remaining fluorine atom. The bond lengths of this molecule are different, which is an uncommon property of inorganic molecules.
The molar mass of this compound is 140 g/mol. It exists in the liquid state at room temperature. Moreover, disulfur tetrafluoride easily undergoes hydrolysis with water. It also spontaneously reacts with oxygen to form thionyl fluoride. We can prepare disulfur tetrafluoride in the laboratory using sulfur chloride that is passed over potassium fluoride at low pressure and low temperature. This reaction, however, gives several byproducts including different chlorides and fluorides of sulfur. We can separate the desired compound via low-temperature distillation.
What is the Difference Between Sulfur Hexafluoride and Disulfur Tetrafluoride?
Sulfur hexafluoride and disulfur tetrafluoride are inorganic compounds containing sulfur and fluorine atoms. The key difference between sulfur hexafluoride and disulfur tetrafluoride is that sulfur hexafluoride has chemical bonds with equal bond length, but disulfur tetrafluoride has chemical bonds with different bond lengths. Furthermore, sulfur hexafluoride is a gaseous compound at room temperature, but disulfur tetrafluoride is a liquid. So, this is another significant difference between sulfur hexafluoride and disulfur tetrafluoride.
Moreover, the molar mass of sulfur hexafluoride is 146 g/mol, while the molar mass of disulfur tetrafluoride is 140 g/mol. Besides, we can produce sulfur hexafluoride via using the pure elemental sulfur and fluorine while the preparation of disulfur tetrafluoride requires passing sulfur chloride over potassium fluoride at low pressure and low temperature and separation using low-temperature distillation.
Summary – Sulfur Hexafluoride vs Disulfur Tetrafluoride
Sulfur hexafluoride and disulfur tetrafluoride are inorganic compounds containing sulfur and fluorine atoms. The key difference between sulfur hexafluoride and disulfur tetrafluoride is that sulfur hexafluoride has chemical bonds with equal bond lengths, whereas disulfur tetrafluoride has chemical bonds with different bond lengths.
Reference:
1. “Difluorodisulfanedifluoride.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Oct. 2019, Available here.
Image Courtesy:
1. “Sulfur-hexafluoride-3D-vdW” (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Disulfur-tetrafluoride-3D-balls” By Benjah-bmm27 – Own work (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia