Chemistry Gassy Essay: Sulfuryl Fluoride
Sulfuryl Fluoride (SO2F2) is a chemical inorganic compound, meaning that it is chemically bonded, and it lacks both carbon and hydrogen atoms. Most inorganic compounds are metals, but sulfuryl fluoride is not a metal. I chose to do sulfuryl fluoride because it was quite an obscure gas. There aren’t very many resources on sulfuryl fluoride and most of them say the same information, so I wanted to try and make myself read into the resources lots to set myself a little bit of a challenge. I am also interested in climate change and greenhouse gases as I think it is a very current problem that we face, so I want to know more about it.
Sulfuryl fluoride is widely used as pest control in the USA, and it has been since 1959. It is very effective because it gets into every nook and cranny, and with a high enough concentration and exposure, the cells will die because the sulfuryl fluoride makes them lose their energy.
While sulfuryl fluoride is very effective and useful in the world of pest control, it has its severe downsides as well. It is very dangerous, and it can kill humans, and it can be hard to immediately tell if a room is safe to go into after having sulfuryl fluorine in as it is colourless and odourless. When it has been used in a room, the room can be out of bounds for up to 72 hours. All these dangers have accumulated to the law in the USA being that it is only allowed to be bought by those with legal permission, and it can only be bought by adequately trained and licensed companies. On products containing it, such as Vikane and Turmafume have to have a label and precautions sheet on them (NPIC 2011)
Sulfuryl fluoride is very bad for the environment and is classified as a greenhouse gas. When released into the environment, sulfuryl fluoride dissolves and lingers after its release for at least four and a half years. It acts like a duvet around the earth, and traps in all the heat along with all the other greenhouse gases and raises the earths temperature. Because this change in temperature can be very drastic, and these lead to natural disasters. Since it is toxic and lingers in the environment, humans can breathe some in and it can be seriously detrimental to our health and fatal, even if it is an extremely small concentration. Sulfuryl fluoride is also neurotoxic and is poisonous and destructive towards our nerve tissues (User 168, Wikipedia 24th September 2003).
Sulfuryl Fluoride was originally developed by Dow Chemical Company, in Michigan, in the USA, and it was later developed by various others. They discovered things such as its boiling point, which is -55. 4°C, and the melting point is -124. 7°C. When sulfuryl fluoride is being handled, the scientists must be very careful because sulfuryl fluoride condenses very easily (PubChem 6th October 2018).
The Dow Chemical Company is a company that looks at products that are ‘healthy’ for the environment (unlike sulfuryl fluoride). They claim to work closely with their customers and create tailored products. They create products for a variety of purposes, such as agricultural, building, industrial purposes and many more. It has been very successful, and its current worth is $57 billion. The process of making sulfuryl fluoride is very complicated, and there are many stages to doing so: The first reaction is preparing the potassium fluorosulfate: SO2 + KF → KSO2FThe salt (produce) of the previous reaction is then added to chlorine to give sulfuryl chloride fluoride: KSO2F + Cl2 → SO2ClF + KCl
The further heating of potassium fluorosulfate (at 180 °C) with the potassium fluorosulfate then creates the required product: SO2ClF + KSO2F → SO2F2 + KCl + SO2
Heating metal fluorosulfate salts also gives this molecule: Ba(OSO2F)2 → BaSO4 + SO2F2
It can be made ready by the reaction of fluorine with sulfur dioxide: SO2 + F2 → SO2F2Sulfuryl fluoride doesn’t react towards molten sodium metal. It is slow to hydrolyze, but it will turn to sulfur trioxide in the end. Sulfuryl fluoride is a forerunner to fluorosulfates and sulfamoyl fluorides: SO2F2 + ROH + base → ROSO2F + Hbase+F−
In an experiment, rats and rabbits were exposed to sulfuryl fluoride with a concentration of 255ppm, and although their offspring has a smaller weight than they would without the exposure to sulfuryl fluoride, they didn't have any defects (Cornell University, September 1993).
Overall, I think sulfuryl fluoride is a very interesting gas, but it can be very dangerous, and when it is being handled, it is very easy for it to go wrong, with it being deadly and easy to condense. Although it can be very useful and effective as pest control, it can also be quite inconvenient because all the floors furniture and everything have to be covered up with plastic because the gas does its job, and then the building can be out of bounds for up to 72 hours, so it might just be a lot easier and safer to get a quick pest control killer that is both safe and effective.
