Detection of Elementary Sulphur

Abstract

A REACTION is known to take place when organic compounds containing hydrogen are heated above the melting point with elementary sulphur. Among other decomposition products hydrogen sulphide is evolved, and its evolution is especially marked when a polyhydric phenol, for example, hydroquinone or pyrogallol, is the reducing agent. The generation of hydrogen sulphide for laboratory use from a melted mixture of sulphur and paraffin wax is perhaps a more familiar example of the reaction. So far as can be ascertained from the literature, the analytical possibilities of the reaction have not been explored previously, yet it affords a means of detecting sulphur quickly and conveniently in complex or coloured materials, provided they are not too readily combustible.