Sodium Sulfide

Introduction

Sodium sulfide is pink to yellowish solid with a rotten egg-like odor. It is readily soluble in water, slightly soluble in alcohol and insoluble in ether. Anhydrous sodium sulfide can ignite spontaneously when exposed to air. [¹] It is used in chemical manufacturing as a sulfonation and sulfomethylation agent. It is used in the production of rubber chemicals, sulfur dyes, and other chemical compounds. It has also been used as a reducer for the reduction of nitro compounds to the corresponding amines. [²] It was found to be useful for the conversion of carboxylic acids into thioacids [³] and alkenoyl ketene dithioacetals into the corresponding [5+1]-annulation products [4] as well as for the synthesis of thiofuranose, [5] cyclic dithiocarbonates, [6] tetrahydrothiophene derivatives, [7] 4-bromo-2-nitrobenzenethiol, [8] a-lipoic acid, [9] thieno[2,3-c]pyrazoles, [¹0] unsaturated thiacrown ethers, [¹¹] thieno[3,2-c]cinnoline, [¹²] monomeric cyclic diketosulfides, [¹³] thiophenes, [¹4] 2H-thio­pyran compounds, [¹5] 4H-thiochromen-4-ones [¹6] and benzo[b]thiophenes. [¹7] It can also act as an atom-economical inorganic nucleophile in transition-metal-catalyzed allyl­ation substitutions. [¹8] Willgerodt-Kindler reaction between anilines and benzaldehydes has also been achieved by the use of Na₂S˙9H₂O as a base catalyst. [¹9]

Sodium sulfide is commercially available and it can be readily prepared by reduction of Na₂SO₄ with carbon or through a solid-gas reaction of a sulfidizing gas mixture of COS, CS₂, and S₂ with the reactant of Na₂CO₃. [²0]

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