Rubidium sulfide

Template:Chembox Rubidium sulfide is an inorganic compound and a salt with the chemical formula Rb₂S. It is a white solid with similar properties to other alkali metal sulfides.

Production

By dissolving hydrogen sulfide into rubidium hydroxide solution, it will produce rubidium bisulfide, followed by rubidium sulfide.

$\mathrm{R}\mathrm{b}\mathrm{O}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{+}{\mathrm{H}}_{\mathrm{2}}\mathrm{S}\mathrm{⟶}\mathrm{R}\mathrm{b}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{S}\mathrm{+}{\mathrm{H}}_{\mathrm{2}}\mathrm{O}$

$\mathrm{R}\mathrm{b}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{S}\mathrm{+}\mathrm{R}\mathrm{b}\mathrm{O}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{⟶}\mathrm{R}{\mathrm{b}}_{\mathrm{2}}\mathrm{S}\mathrm{+}{\mathrm{H}}_{\mathrm{2}}\mathrm{O}$

Properties

Physical properties

Rubidium sulfide has a cubic crystal similar to lithium sulfide, sodium sulfide and potassium sulfide, known as the anti-fluorite structure. Their space groups are $Fm\overline{3}m$. Rubidium sulfide has a crystal lattice unit cell dimension of = 765.0 pm.

Chemical properties

Rubidium sulfide reacts with sulfur in hydrogen gas to form rubidium pentasulfide, Rb₂S₅.