Magnesium sulfide is an inorganic compound with the formula MgS. It is a white crystalline material but often is encountered in an impure form that is brown and non-crystalline powder. It is generated industrially in the production of metallic iron.
In the BOSsteelmaking process, sulfur is the first element to be removed. Sulfur is removed from the impure blast furnace iron by the addition of several hundred kilograms of magnesium powder by a lance. Magnesium sulfide is formed, which then floats on the molten iron and is removed.[4]
MgS is a wide band-gap direct semiconductor of interest as a blue-green emitter, a property that has been known since the early 1900s.[5] The wide-band gap property also allows the use of MgS as photo-detector for short wavelength ultraviolet light.[6]
Occurrence
Aside from being a component of some slags, MgS is a rare nonterrestrial mineralniningerite detected in some meteorites. It is also a solid soution component along with CaS and FeS in oldhamite. MgS is also found in the circumstellar envelopes of certain evolved carbon stars, i. e., those with C/O > 1.[7]
^Bradford, C.; O'Donnell, C. B.; Urbaszek, B.; Balocchi, A.; Morhain, C.; Prior, K. A.; Cavenett, B. C. (2000). "Growth of zinc blende MgS/ZnSe single quantum wells by molecular-beam epitaxy using ZnS as a sulphur source". Appl. Phys. Lett. 76 (26): 3929. Bibcode:2000ApPhL..76.3929B. doi:10.1063/1.126824.
^Lai, Y. H.; He, Q. L.; Cheung, W. Y.; Lok, S. K.; Wong, K. S.; Ho, S. K.; Tam, K. W.; Sou, I. K. (2013). "Molecular beam epitaxy-grown wurtzite MgS thin films for solar-blind ultra-violet detection". Applied Physics Letters. 102 (17): 171104. Bibcode:2013ApPhL.102q1104L. doi:10.1063/1.4803000.
^Holleman, A. F.; Wiberg, E. "Inorganic Chemistry" Academic Press: San Diego, 2001. ISBN0-12-352651-5.
^Irons, G. A.; Guthrie, R. I. L. "Kinetic aspects of magnesium desulfurization of blast furnace iron" Ironmaking and Steelmaking (1981), volume 8, pp.114-21.
^Tiede, E. "Reindarstellung von Magnesiumsulfid und seine Phosphorescenz. I (Preparation of pure magnesium sulfide and its phosphorescence. I)" Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft (1916), volume 49, pages 1745-9.