Dear all,
i am searching for a list of inorganic substances with a smell but i haven't find one.
Currently, I found only four substances:
H2S
NH3
NO2
Na2SnO3.
best regards
Luca
Hello Luca,
sorry to see that your very interesting technical question has not yet received any expert answers. Perhaps the question is a bit too general in nature. In particular, what is meant by "smelly"? "Smelly" can mean a lot of different odors, such as pleasant, flowery, fish-like, foul, rotten egg-like, phosphine-like, pungent etc. In that sense, I would estimate that hundreds, if not thousands, of inorganic compounds are some kind of smelly. Think e.g. about the pungent odor of HCl gas, thionyl chloride, sulfuryl chloride, PCl3, PCl5 etc. etc. A combination of fould and pungent odors can for example be found in compounds like thiophosgene (S=CCl2) or the sulfur chlorides SCl2 and S2Cl2. The smell of carbon disulfide (CS2) is foul when the compound is impure, but highly pure CS2 smells ether-like (some chemists would even describe this smell as pleasant). As you can see, it is more or less impossible to provide a "list of smelly inorganic substances".
I hope this helps. Good luck with your research.
Hello frank,
thanks for that information, I did not find a book or a paper that indicate the smell of inorganic substances. It was just a curiosity becuase I was unware of this topic and I found very few information on internet. recently i found also Borane gas has a smell but i haven't found a book treating this topic while there several list of organic substances with a smell.
Hello Luca,
many thanks for your kind response and explanation. I think the main reason why there are books dealing with the smell of organic compounds is that many of them are practically used as fragrances and perfumes. In contrast, not many inorganic compounds really smell good. Moreover, I don't know of any inorganic compound that is being used as fragrance or perfume.
With best wishes, Frank Edelmann
Ammonia, hydrogen sulfide are two quite smelly inorganic compounds as are the halogen elements
Hello Luca,
As Prof Edelmann already pointed out, your question is very interesting. Therefore, here are some more gaseous substances with a characteristic smell:
HCN, (CN)2 bitter almonds
SO2 piercing
NO2 piercing
H2S, H2Se rotten eggs
P2H4 rotten fish
AsH3 onions
Keep in mind that all these compounds are highly toxic.
All the best,
Thomas
The sulfur compounds in general are notorious for their bad smell.
Phosphines, especially substituted with aliphatic groups also exhibit very strong odour.
Odors are inorganic or organic compounds, which are present in low concentrations, typically 20 ppmv or less, which have an unpleasant odor. Volatile chemicals are often present at higher concentrations than odors, but may or may not have any odors associated with them
Books on organic compounds used as flavors and fragrances are many.
Let me try to find out if there is any monograph or book on this topic.
- Unfortunately, I'm not aware of list compiling the smelly inorganic compounds. In addition to the previous answers, from what I have read (not always in scientific article or text books), Selenium and Tellurium have a smell reminiscent of sulfur. It's also said that some metal have odors. Copper and Iron at least. Actually, they would produce the metalic flavor by oxidizing lipids (see the paper of Omur-Ozbek DOI:10.1021/jf204277v). Hope it helps.
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