It is known that poisoning by heavy metal ions occurs worldwide, and that sulfur has a high affinity for heavy metals and metalloids (arsenic, lead, mercury). However, little is understood about how electronic and structural variations of sulfur ligands affect the heavy metal-sulfur bond. Our work seeks to gain insight into arsenic-sulfur bonding in order to better understand As toxicity, remediation, and pharmaceutical applications. We are using ligand K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy to understand how varying the substituents and stereoelectronic properties of sulfur ligands impact arsenic-sulfur covalency. In this presentation, we will describe our investigation into how electron withdrawing and donating substituents affect sulfur bonding in trithioarsenites. In addition, current work focusing on the synthesis of a series of new tri-cyclic cage complexes containing arsenic-sulfur bonds will be discussed.

Exploring the impact of ligand variation on arsenic-sulfur bonding using X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS)

249th National Meeting (2015)

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