Atomic number:  16              Period Number: 3           Group Number: 16

Sulfur (S), is an abundant nonmetallic element, appearing as a yellow solid of sintered microcrystals in its pure state. Sulfur is highly reactive and one of the most common elements in the universe and on earth, resulting in a huge number of compounds and ores containing sulfur. While there are many ways to acquire sulfur as a result, the majority of commercial sulfur comes from fossil resource production. Organosulfur compounds, impurities in petroleum and other materials, are processed to produce hydrogen sulfide, which in turn is converted to elemental sulfur.

Applications of Sulfur

Because of the huge number of sulfuric compounds, it has applications in nearly every industry and field. Nonetheless, most of the sulfur produced globally goes to a limited number of high-volume applications:

• Sulfuric acid. About 85% of sulfur produced globally is converted to sulfuric acid, which is used primarily to extract phosphates for fertilizers. The rest is used to refine oil, process waste, and extract other minerals.
• Fertilizers. In addition to its indirect use as an extraction tool for phosphate ores, sulfur is itself a component of fertilizers, due to the high botanical needs for sulfur and increasing depletion of sulfur in soil.

AHP Materials can prepare sulfur at 99.999% or 99.9999% purity as part of our standard catalog. For other preparations, reach out to us today and learn about our custom orders.

Available from AHP Materials

• Sulfur ( S ), 99.999%, 99.9999%
• Silicon Sulfide ( SiS2 ),  99.999%
• Titanium Sulfide ( TiS2  ), 99.999%
• Germanium Sulfide ( GeS2), 99.999%
• Aluminum Sulfide ( Al2S3), 99.999%
• Cadmium Sulfide ( CdS), 99.999%
• Zinc Sulfide ( ZnS ), 99.999%

Sulfur Resources:

Wikipedia - Basics on Sulfur
Chemicool - Cool way to learn about Sulfur
WebElements - The basic elements of Sulfur
Jefferson Lab - Learning about Sulfur