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MERCAPTANS (Thio-alcohols)

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 149 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MERCAPTANS (Thio-See also:alcohols) , organic chemical compounds of the type R.SH (R=an alkyl See also:group). The name is derived from mercurium captans, in allusion to the fact that these compounds react readily with mercuric See also:oxide to See also:form crystalline See also:mercury derivatives. The mercaptans may, be prepared by the See also:action of the alkyl halides on an alcoholic See also:solution of See also:potassium hydrosulphide; by the reduction of the sulpho-chlorides, e.g. C2H5SO2C1 (chlorides of sulphonic acids), by See also:heating the salts of See also:esters of sulphuric See also:acid with potassium hydrosulphide, and by heating the alcohols with See also:phosphorus pentasulphide. They are colourless liquids, which are insoluble in See also:water and possess a characteristic offensive See also:smell. On oxidation by nitric acid they yield sulphonic acids. They combine with See also:aldehydes and See also:ketones, with elimination of water and formation of mercaptals and mercaptols. (See See also:SULPHONAL.) Methyl mercaptan, CHI.SH, is a liquid which boils at 5.8° C. (752 mm.), and forms a crystalline See also:hydrate with water. See also:Ethyl mercaptan, C2H5.SH, is a colourless liquid which boils at 36.2° C. It is used commercially in the preparation of sulphonal (q.v.). The mercury See also:salt, Hg(SC2Hb)2, crystallizes from See also:alcohol in plates.

When heated with alcohol to 19o° C. it decomposes into mercury and ethyldisulphide.

End of Article: MERCAPTANS (Thio-alcohols)

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