The Dipole Moments and Structures of a Series of Alkyl Polysulfides

The dipole moments of n-hexadecyl mono-, di-, tri-, and tetrasulfides at 30°C are 1.47, 2.00, 1.63, and 2.16D, respectively. These values provide evidence in favor of non-branched sulfur chains in the polysulfides and are also in accord with fixed non-planar configurations for these chains. It is possible that the disulfide exists as mixture of two non-superimposable mirror-image forms, the trisulfide as a mixture of one highly polar form together with a pair of nearly non-polar enantiomorphs, and the tetrasulfide as a mixture of three different pairs of enantiomorphs, all three pairs being polar.