Sciencemadness Discussion Board

How can As4S4 be synthesized?

bolbol - 20-4-2016 at 22:54

As4S4 is what makes up the mineral Realgar. I was wondering if there are any people here who may know a way to synthesize this using elementral arsenic and Sulfur.

I want to try precipitating it out from a solution on a Quartz bed.

Edit: Had written phosphorus instead of sulfur...

[Edited on 21-4-2016 by bolbol]

fluorescence - 20-4-2016 at 23:32

Why Phosphorus ?

Anyway I found this paper but didnt have time to fully read it. They discuss some methods there. I think they even mentioned a route from the elements.

The paper is called:

"Growth and Raman spectroscopic characterization of As4S4 (II) single crystals" by Atsushi Kyono

I checked your formula in SciFinder but it only came up with some weird As-S-8-membered Ring which looked somewhat cool. Might check that out soon.

urenthesage - 26-5-2016 at 09:53

Quote: Originally posted by bolbol  
As4S4 is what makes up the mineral Realgar. I was wondering if there are any people here who may know a way to synthesize this using elementral arsenic and Sulfur.

I want to try precipitating it out from a solution on a Quartz bed.

Edit: Had written phosphorus instead of sulfur...

[Edited on 21-4-2016 by bolbol]


You'll probably end up with a grey pseudomorph of realgar, in a similar way to trying to make cinnabar gives you a black powdery mineral as opposed to the red of the real thing. Its an amazingly abundant mineral and its probably best just to buy it as is. EBAY has it on fairly cheap.