text: The versatile chemistry of elemental sulfur is largely due to catenation. In the native state, sulfur exists as S molecules. On heating these rings open and link together giving rise to increasingly long chains, as evidenced by the progressive increase in viscosity as the chains lengthen. Also, sulfur polycations, sulfur polyanions (polysulfides) and lower sulfur oxides are all known. Furthermore, selenium and tellurium show variants of these structural motifs.