The decomposition products of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) with metals dissolved in liquid ammonia

Abstract

Sulfur hexafluoride is a highly chemically inert gas with several important industrial applications. It is stable against fused alkali, oxygen and ammonia, even at several hundred degrees Celsius. In this work, the reactions between metals (Li-Cs, Sr, Ba, Eu, Yb) dissolved in liquid ammonia and SF6 are reported, leading to mono- or bivalent fluorides and sulfides. To this end, SF6 was passed into a cooled solution of the respective metal in liquid ammonia. The identity of the products was confirmed by powder X-ray diffraction and IR spectroscopy. The reactions could lead to a cheap and effective disposal method of the present amounts of stored SF6, for possible generation of H2S and HF.