Neha Patil (Editor)

Sulfur trifluoride

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Related compounds
  
SF2, SF4, SF6, S2F10

Sulfur trifluoride is an inorganic chemical compound composed of one atom of sulfur and three atoms of fluorine. It has the chemical formula SF3, and is 64% fluorine and 36% sulfur by mass. Sulfur trifluoride is not a stable molecule: it has an unpaired electron and is thus a radical. While some radicals are stable, SF3 is not.

Contents

Structure

Sulfur trifluoride is composed of one sulfur atom with three fluorine atoms surrounding it. Each fluorine is attached to the sulfur by a single covalent bond. The SF3 molecule is very short-lived and its structure has not been determined experimentally. It is calculated to adopt a butterfly-shaped molecular geometry, belonging to the Cs point group.

Ligand

SF3 is known as a ligand in the compound (Et3P)2Ir(CO)(Cl)(F)(SF3). Ir(CO)3(SF3) is also possibly stable. But other third row transition elements do not make stable complexes with SF3, instead they dissociate SF2 and form a -F complex instead.

References

Sulfur trifluoride Wikipedia