General Description
A colorless liquid with an unpleasant odor. Insoluble in water and slightly denser than water. Flash point 30°F. Vapors heavier than air. Irritates the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes. Used to make pharmaceuticals and dyes.
Reactivity Profile
THIOPHENE(110-02-1) reacts violently with strong oxidizing agents and concentrated nitric acid causing fire and explosion hazards [Handling Chemicals Safely 1980. p. 899]. A mixture of THIOPHENE(110-02-1) and N-nitrosoacetanilide exploded at 0°C [Ber., 1887, 30, 367].
Air & Water Reactions
Highly flammable. Insoluble in water.
Health Hazard
May cause toxic effects if inhaled or absorbed through skin. Inhalation or contact with material may irritate or burn skin and eyes. Fire will produce irritating, corrosive and/or toxic gases. Vapors may cause dizziness or suffocation. Runoff from fire control or dilution water may cause pollution.
Fire Hazard
HIGHLY FLAMMABLE: Will be easily ignited by heat, sparks or flames. Vapors may form explosive mixtures with air. Vapors may travel to source of ignition and flash back. Most vapors are heavier than air. They will spread along ground and collect in low or confined areas (sewers, basements, tanks). Vapor explosion hazard indoors, outdoors or in sewers. Runoff to sewer may create fire or explosion hazard. Containers may explode when heated. Many liquids are lighter than water.
Physical properties
Clear, colorless liquid with an aromatic odor resembling benzene. An odor threshold concentration
of 0.056 ppbv was reported by Nagata and Takeuchi (1990).
Definition
A colorless liquid that smells like benzene, a heterocyclic compound with a five-membered
ring containing four carbon atoms and one
sulfur atom. It occurs as an impurity in
commercial benzene and is used as a solvent and in organic syntheses.
Definition
ChEBI: A monocyclic heteroarene that is furan in which the oxygen atom is replaced by a sulfur.
Definition
thiophene: A colourless liquid compound,C4H4S; m.p. –38°C; b.p. 84°C.The compound is present in commercialbenzene. The ring system is alsoknown as a thienyl ring.
Hazard
Flammable, dangerous fire risk.
Environmental Fate
Photolytic. A rate constant 9.70 x 10-12 cm3/molecule?sec was reported for the reaction of
thiophene and OH radicals in the atmosphere at room temperature (Atkinson, 1985). Thiophene
also reacts with NO3 radicals in the atmosphere at rate constants ranging from 3.2 x 10-14
(Atkinson et al., 1985) to 3.93 x 10-14 cm3/molecule?sec (Atkinson, 1991).
Purification Methods
The simplest purification procedure is to dry thiophen with solid KOH, or reflux it with sodium, and fractionally distil it through a glass-helices-packed column. More extensive treatments include an initial wash with aqueous HCl, then water, drying with CaSO4 or KOH, and passage through columns of activated silica gel or alumina. Fawcett and Rasmussen [J Am Chem Soc 67 1705 1945] washed thiophene successively with 7M HCl, 4M NaOH, and distilled water, dried with CaCl2 and fractionally distilled it. *Benzene was removed by fractional crystallisation by partial freezing, and the thiophene was degassed and sealed in Pyrex flasks. [Also a method is described for recovering the thiophene from the *benzene-enriched portion.] [Beilstein 17 H 29, 17 I 17, 17 II 35, 17 III/IV 234, 17/1 V 297.]