All practice pages/Interatomic theory/Elements
Element 16, a nonmetal
The yellow brimstone of old stories, a solid made of rings of eight atoms, and the element behind the smell of rotten eggs.
Period 3, group 16. The other nonmetals are tinted, and every cell opens its own article.
Six valence electrons, two short of eight, so sulfur gains two to form S²⁻ or shares electrons in covalent bonds. Solid sulfur is made of S₈ molecules, rings of eight atoms.
Found free near volcanoes and hot springs and in deep underground deposits, and combined in minerals such as pyrite (fool's gold) and gypsum. Today most sulfur is removed from natural gas and crude oil during refining, where it would otherwise pollute the air as sulfur dioxide.
Known since ancient times as brimstone, burning stone. Antoine Lavoisier convinced chemists in 1777 that it was an element, not a compound. The name comes from the Latin sulpur; chemists worldwide now spell it sulfur.
Most becomes sulfuric acid, made in larger amounts than any other industrial chemical and used for fertilizers, metal refining and car batteries. Sulfur also hardens the rubber in tires, a process called vulcanization, and goes into matches, gunpowder, fungicides and medicines.
Burning sulfur gives off choking sulfur dioxide. Hydrogen sulfide is toxic even at low levels and deadens the sense of smell, so a rotten-egg smell that fades is a warning, not relief.