kids encyclopedia robot

Sulfoxide facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Dichlorotetrakis(dimethyl-sulfoxide)-ruthenium(II)-3D-balls
RuCl2(dmso)4, a representative metal complex of a sulfoxide. The DMSO is coordinated to Ru in two ways, through O and through S

A sulfoxide is a molecule that has a sulfur atom bonded to two carbons and one oxygen atom. It comes from oxidising thioethers, without going all the way to the sulfone. Like many molecules containing sulfur, sulfoxide can sometimes smell a lot.

Sulfoxides can be written with the general formula R–S(=O)–R'. Sulfur has a double bond with the oxygen, and single bonds with the carbons. That leaves a lone pair on the atom. This means that the shape at that atom is tetrahedral. It also means that the sulfur can be a chiral centre. Sulfoxides are used as good ligands for transition metals.

An important molecule of this kind is dimethyl sulfoxide. It is also called DMSO. It is used as a solvent for many reactions, especially in biochemistry.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Sulfóxido para niños

kids search engine
All content from Kiddle encyclopedia articles (including the article images and facts) can be freely used under Attribution-ShareAlike license, unless stated otherwise. Cite this article:
Sulfoxide Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.