Topic summary
Disulfide bonds
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Disulfide.
Properties
Disulfide bonds are strong, with a typical bond dissociation energy of 60 kcal/mol (251 kJ mol). However, being about 40% weaker than C−C and C−H bonds, the disulfide bond is often the "weak link" in many molecules. Furthermore, reflecting the polarizability of divalent sulfur, the S−S bond is susceptible to scission by polar reagents, both electrophiles and especially nucleophiles (Nu):