Oxoacids and their salts

By way of introduction of oxoacids, we note some generalities:

• oxoacid chemistry of sulfur resembles the complicated system of phosphorus;
• there are structural analogies between sulfates and phosphates, although fewer condensed sulfates are known;
• redox processes involving sulfur oxoanions are often slow, and thermodynamic data alone do not give a very good picture of their chemistry (compare similar situations for nitrogen- and phosphorus-containing oxoanions);
• selenium and tellurium have a relatively simple oxoacid chemistry.

Structures and pKa values for important sulfur oxoacids are given in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 Selected oxoacids of sulfur.