Carbon disulfide

Description

For many years, carbon disulfide was manufactured by the reaction of charcoal with sulfur vapor at temperatures of 750– 1000
C, but by the mid-twentieth century, especially in the United States, the process was superseded by the reaction of natural gas (principally methane) with sulfur.

Description

Carbon disulfide (CS2) was once a common laboratory and industrial solvent, but it is used less widely now because of its toxicity and flammability. It was once manufactured by the reaction of sulfur with carbon sources, such as charcoal or coke, at high temperatures; but it is now made by the “combustion” of natural gas in sulfur. Its major industrial uses are in the manufacture of rayon, carbon tetrachloride, and agricultural fumigants.

The Uses of Carbon disulfide

Carbon disulfide is used as a raw material in the production of such things as rayon, cellophane, semiconductors, and carbon tetrachloride, and to make some pesticides. It is used as an industrial solvent and chemical intermediate to dissolve rubber to produce tires (ATSDR, 1996), as well as in grain fumigation, analytical chemistry research, degreasing, dry cleaning, and oil extraction (Finkel et al., 1983). Natural sources of carbon disulfide include the open ocean, coastal areas of high biological activity, microbial reduction of sulfates in soil, marshlands, and some higher plants where the source of carbon disulfide is the tree roots (Carroll, 1985; Khalil and Rasmussen, 1984).
Previously, carbon disulfide was used as a pesticide, where it was typically mixed with carbon tetrachloride in a 20/80 mixture, respectively. This mixture was used to exterminate insects and rodents from entire boxcars of wheat, corn, rye, and other grains (Peters et al., 1988). Grain fumigators can be acutely intoxicated and may be chronically exposed to carbon disulfide. Therefore, in the late 1980s, all pesticides containing carbon disulfide as an active ingredient were cancelled by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) (U.S. EPA, 1999).