Episulfide Research Articles

Rubber, Polyisoprenes and Allied Compounds. VIII. The Formation of Dialkyl Sulfide Dihalides, and Its Bearing on the Problem of Determining the Unsaturation of Vulcanized Rubber

Abstract In determining the unsaturation of olefinic sulfides and disulfides by halogenation methods, the addition of halogen to the sulfur atom must be taken into account. The dihalides of dialkyl or dialkenyl sulfides react with aqueous potassium iodide partly to liberate iodine with regeneration of the sulfide, and partly to form halogen acid and dialkyl or dialkenyl sulfoxides. Correction for the latter reaction, which occurs extensively in the presence of alcohol or acetic acid, must be applied before reliable unsaturation values for dialkenyl sulfides can be obtained. With vulcanized rubber and iodine monochloride, the precise magnitude of the correction to be applied is uncertain, but this uncertainty can be removed by using bromine as the additive reagent. Simple rubber-sulfur vulcanizates show a loss of unsaturation corresponding to one double bond per sulfur atom combined up to at least 8 per cent of combined sulfur; vulcanizates accelerated with mercaptobenzothiazole in the presence of zinc oxide exhibit a substantially smaller loss of unsaturation. The dibromides of dialkyl sulfides readily yield a molecule of bromine to olefins, the reaction being practically exclusively additive.