The direct reaction of limonene and elemental sulfur has been used to access polysulfide materials useful in mercury sorption. The starting materials are low cost, the synthesis is scalable to hundreds of grams, and at high concentrations of mercury the polysulfide changes colour-for potential use in mercury sensing. However, the original preparation of this has some shortcomings. For example, the reaction was carried out at 180 ºC for several hours and distillation was required to remove low molecular weight byproducts such as p-cymene and malodorous thiols. Recently, it was discovered by Hasell and co-workers that the same material could be made at a lower temperature and with fewer byproducts through the use of an accelerator or catalyst such as zinc diethyldithiocarbamate. This advance eliminated the need for the distillation step, as less limonene is oxidised to cymene and fewer thiols are formed.