Chromium(II) sulfate is an
inorganic compound
An inorganic compound is typically a chemical compound that lacks carbon–hydrogen bondsthat is, a compound that is not an organic compound. The study of inorganic compounds is a subfield of chemistry known as ''inorganic chemistry''.
Inorgan ...
with the
chemical formula
A chemical formula is a way of presenting information about the chemical proportions of atoms that constitute a particular chemical compound or molecule, using chemical element symbols, numbers, and sometimes also other symbols, such as pare ...
. It often comes as
hydrates . Several
hydrate
In chemistry, a hydrate is a substance that contains water or its constituent elements. The chemical state of the water varies widely between different classes of hydrates, some of which were so labeled before their chemical structure was understo ...
d
salts are known. The pentahydrate is a blue solid that dissolves readily in water. Solutions of chromium(II) are easily oxidized by air to Cr(III) species. Solutions of Cr(II) are used as specialized reducing agents of value in
organic synthesis
Organic synthesis is a branch of chemical synthesis concerned with the construction of organic compounds. Organic compounds are molecules consisting of combinations of covalently-linked hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen atoms. Within the gen ...
.
[A. Zurqiyah and C. E. Castro "Reduction of Conjugated Alkenes With Chromium(II) Sulfate: Diethyl Succinate" Organic Syntheses, Vol. 49, p.98 (1969).]
The salt is produced by treating chromium metal with aqueous sulfuric acid:
:
It can be produced through the reaction of
sulfate salts and
chromium(II) acetate
Chromium(II) acetate hydrate, also known as chromous acetate, is the coordination compound with the chemical formula, formula Cr2(CH3CO2)4(H2O)2. This formula is commonly abbreviated Cr2(OAc)4(H2O)2. This red-coloured compound features a quadruple ...
or, for in situ use, the reduction of
chromium(III) sulfate with zinc.
[
]
Structure
In aqueous solutions chromium(II) sulfate forms metal aquo complexes, presumably with six water ligands. The structures of the crystalline salts are similar to the corresponding hydrates of copper(II) sulfate: pentahydrate, trihydrate, monohydrate, and anhydrous derivatives of chromous sulfate are known. In all of these compounds, the Cr(II) centre adopts octahedral coordination geometry, being coordinated to six oxygen centers provided by a combination of water and sulfate ligands.
References
{{Sulfates
Chromium(II) compounds
Sulfates
Chromium–oxygen compounds