Book excerpt: Organic Sulfur Compounds, Volume I deals with the chemistry of organic sulfur compounds such as disulfides, polysulfides, olefins, acetylenes, and chloroethylenes. Topics covered range from the inorganic acids of sulfur and the thermodynamics of organic sulfur compounds to some applications of isotopic sulfur and the stereochemistry of disulfides and polysulfides. The mechanism of oxidation of thiols to disulfides is also discussed. Comprised of 40 chapters, this volume first considers the precise structures of elemental sulfur in relation to the reactions of sulfur compounds, followed by an analysis of the inorganic acids of sulfur. The reader is then introduced to the thermodynamics of organic sulfur compounds and the bonding characteristics of the sulfur atom, as well as the infrared spectra of organosulfur compounds. Subsequent chapters focus on the ionic scission of the sulfur-sulfur bond; nucleophilic reactions of thiols with acetylene and chloroethylene; reactions of sulfur with olefins; and the chemistry of isothiocyanates. This book should prove useful to advanced students, practitioners, and research workers in the field of organic chemistry.