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Occupational exposure to carbon disulfide is also associated with cardiovascular disease, particularly stroke. Effects observed at lower concentrations include neurological problems ( encephalopathy, psychomotor and psychological disturbances, polyneuritis, abnormalities in nerve conduction), vision problems (burning eyes, abnormal light reactions, increased ophthalmic pressure), heart problems (increased deaths for heart disease, angina pectoris, high blood pressure), and reproductive problems (increased miscarriages, immobile or deformed sperm), and decreased immune response. Symptoms include acute psychosis (manic delirium, hallucinations), paranoic ideas, loss of appetite, gastrointestinal and sexual disorders, polyneuritis, myopathy, and mood changes (including irritability and anger). These include a set of mostly neurological and psychiatric symptoms, called encephalopathia sulfocarbonica. Ĭoncentrations of 500–3000 mg/m 3 cause acute and subacute poisoning. Health effects Ĭarbon disulfide has been linked to both acute and chronic forms of poisoning, with a diverse range of symptoms. Carbon disulfide is also used as an insecticide for the fumigation of grains, nursery stock, in fresh fruit conservation and as a soil disinfectant against insects and nematodes. It can be used in fumigation of airtight storage warehouses, airtight flat storages, bins, grain elevators, railroad box cars, shipholds, barges and cereal mills. It is widely used in the synthesis of organosulfur compounds such as metam sodium, xanthates and dithiocarbamates, which are used in extractive metallurgy and rubber chemistry.Ĭarbon disulfide insecticide ad from the 1896 issue of The American Elevator and Grain Trade magazine It is also a valued intermediate in chemical synthesis of carbon tetrachloride. The principal industrial uses of carbon disulfide, consuming 75% of the annual production, are the manufacture of viscose rayon and cellophane film.
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Trithiocarbonate (-S-C(S)-S-) linkages comprise, in part, the backbone of the polymer, which is a semiconductor. Polymerization ĬS 2 polymerizes upon photolysis or under high pressure to give an insoluble material called car-sul or "Bridgman's black", named after the discoverer of the polymer, Percy Williams Bridgman. This conversion proceeds via the intermediacy of thiophosgene, CSCl 2.ĬS 2 is a ligand for many metal complexes, forming pi complexes. Reduction of carbon disulfide with sodium affords sodium 1,3-dithiole-2-thione-4,5-dithiolate together with sodium trithiocarbonate: 4 Na + 4 CS 2 → Na 2C 3S 5 + Na 2CS 3 Chlorination Ĭhlorination of CS 2 provides a route to carbon tetrachloride: CS 2 + 3 Cl 2 → CCl 4 + S 2Cl 2 Sodium sulfide affords trithiocarbonate: Na 2S + CS 2 → 2Ĭarbon disulfide does not hydrolyze readily, although the process is catalyzed by an enzyme carbon disulfide hydrolase. Both xanthates and the related thioxanthates (derived from treatment of CS 2 with sodium thiolates) are used as flotation agents in mineral processing. This reaction is the basis of the manufacture of regenerated cellulose, the main ingredient of viscose, rayon and cellophane. Xanthates form similarly from alkoxides: RONa + CS 2 → For example, amines afford dithiocarbamates: 2 R 2NH + CS 2 → While, however, reactions of nucleophiles with CO 2 are highly reversible and products are only isolated with very strong nucleophiles, the reactions with CS 2 are thermodynamically more favored allowing the formation of products with less reactive nucleophiles.
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Its combustion affords sulfur dioxide according to this ideal stoichiometry:ĬS 2 + 3 O 2 → CO 2 + 2 SO 2 With nucleophiles Ĭompared to the isoelectronic carbon dioxide, CS 2 is a weaker electrophile. It has been used in the purification of single-walled carbon nanotubes. Solvent Ĭarbon disulfide is a solvent for phosphorus, sulfur, selenium, bromine, iodine, fats, resins, rubber, and asphalt. United States production in 2007 was 56,000 tonnes. Global production/consumption of carbon disulfide is approximately one million tonnes, with China consuming 49%, followed by India at 13%, mostly for the production of rayon fiber.
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The reaction is analogous to the combustion of methane. C + 2S → CS 2Ī lower-temperature reaction, requiring only 600 ☌, utilizes natural gas as the carbon source in the presence of silica gel or alumina catalysts: 2 CH 4 + S 8 → 2 CS 2 + 4 H 2S CS 2 once was manufactured by combining carbon (or coke) and sulfur at 800–1000 ☌. Small amounts of carbon disulfide are released by volcanic eruptions and marshes.
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