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. 2023 Sep 18;14:5284. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-40871-0

Fig. 4. Reactions along with the oxidation state of sulfur.

Fig. 4

Sulfur species and reaction pathways described by Eqs. 14 (after Williamson and Rimstidt, 1992)49. Two dominant species of organosulfur compounds (R–SO3 and R–OSO3) were reported previously36 and are documented in this study. The red line shows the reaction path from inorganic ions to these sulfur-containing organics, such as esterification (Eq. 4). The purple line shows the reaction path of sulfur allotropes stabilizing to S8. Sulfur species detected by our ion chromatography and mass spectrometry analyses are shown in the orange squares. Note that organosulfur compounds with various alkyl side chains have been detected4, 14 (Fig. 3, Supplementary Fig. 8). For Eq. 1, the presence of SO2 has been suggested by spectroscopic observations50, and both H2S and SO2 are generally involved in astrochemical models18. See also Supplementary Tables 1, 3 and their references for sulfur abundance in the Ryugu sample.