Page 6 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

Properties of sulphur
Native, or pure, sulphur is a soft, yellow,
crumbly material. By heating it, many of the special properties of this element are clearly seen.
 The “buckled” ring structure of a molecule of one form of sulphur, as seen from the side and above.
 Sulphur is usually found in
a laboratory as a crumbly yellow powder. This is the starting material for the demonstrations on this page.
 Sulphur melts at 115°C. Despite this low melting temperature, it takes a long while for all of the sulphur to melt because sulphur is a poor conductor of heat.
 Molten sulphur is an amber liquid that is quite runny (mobile). The reason for this is that sulphur atoms clump into “buckled” rings, each containing eight atoms. The energy
of heating allows the rings to spread apart enough to slide over each other.
To imagine how this works, think of a can of spaghetti-rings. When cold, the contents of the emptied can will stand up in a saucepan (they act as a solid),
but when heated, the rings start to slide around.
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