“…More recently the reactions of SbF5 and AsF5 with sulfur, selenium, or tellurium in S02 as a solvent have been used to prepare a large variety of polyatomic cations such as S82+, Se42+, Te64+, Te2Se82+, Te3S32+, and Te2Se42+.1<H4 Many of these cations have also been prepared by the reactions of their respective elements with the very strong acids HS03F and H2S207. 15,16 In every case it appears that stable solutions or stable crystalline salts of these polyatomic cations can only be obtained when the cation is accompanied by a large, very weakly basic anion such as A1C14", SbF6", or S03F". The object of the present work was to study the oxidation of bismuth with a variety of oxidants in solution in S02 to investigate the formation of bismuth polyatomic cations in this medium, with the particular objective of obtaining more information on the structures of Bi53+, Bi82+, and any other bismuth cations that might be formed.…”