Carbon Disulfide (CS₂)

Introduction

Carbon disulfide is a volatile liquid, colourless, inexpensive and commercially available reagent that has found a lot of applications in organic chemistry. It has been used to prepare organic building blocks, especially for the synthesis of various sulfur-containing derivatives such as ­sulfur heterocycles, dithiocarbonates, thioureas, thio­carbamates.

The problems associated with this reagent are that it is highly flammable and has one of the lowest autoignition temperatures; because of that it is necessary to take certain precautions with its use.

Compared to CO₂, CS₂ is more reactive toward nucleophiles and more easily reduced. These differences in reactivity can be attributed to the weaker π-donor ability of the sulfide centers, which makes the carbon more electrophilic. Therefore, it is widely used in the synthesis of organosulfur compounds, which can be used in industrial chemistry.

Figure 1

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