Palladium disulfide

February 07, 2022
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Image of Palladium disulfide 3D Image of Palladium disulfide

Palladium disulfide [palladium(IV) sulfide, or PdS2] is a grey-to-black crystalline powder. It is made by heating palladium(II) sulfide1 (PdS) or palladium(II) chloride2 (PdCl2) with excess elemental sulfur.

PdS2 has been known since 1956, when Fredrik Grønvold and Erling Røst at the University of Oslo (Blindern, Norway) described its properties, along with other palladium sulfides and its selenides and tellurides. They reported the crystal structure shown in the 3-D image above. An early use of PdS2 was cited in a 1974 USSR patent as a catalyst for the partial hydrogenation of cyclopentadiene to cyclopentene.

Fast-forward to 2021, when Yanfen Wan, Xiaohua Yu, and Peng Yang, and co-workers at Yunnan University and Kunming University of Science and Technology (both in Kunming, China) used a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition method to prepare centimeter-scale artifacts of PdS2 that are only a few layers thick. The authors state that the physical properties of their materials “are very helpful in developing high-performance opto-electronic applications” such as field-effect transistors.

1. CAS Reg. No. 12125-22-3.
2. CAS Reg. No. 7647-10-1.

Palladium disulfide hazard information*

Hazard class**GHS code and hazard statement
Skin corrosion/irritation, category 2H315—Causes skin irritationChemical Safety Warning
Serious eye damage/eye irritation, category 2AH319—Causes serious eye irritationChemical Safety Warning

Specific target organ toxicity, single exposure, respiratory tract irritation, category 3

H335—May cause respiratory irritationChemical Safety Warning

*No safety data sheets for palladium disulfide are available. The information above is for palladium(II) sulfide.
**Globally Harmonized System (GHS) of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals. Explanation of pictograms.

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Palladium disulfide 
fast facts

CAS Reg. No.12137-75-6
SciFinder
nomenclature
Palladium sulfide (PdS2)
Empirical formulaPdS2
Molar mass170.55 g/mol
AppearanceGray to black crystals or powder
Melting point600 °C (dec.)
Water solubilityInsoluble
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