Making Sulfuric Acid From Sulfur

The first step in creating sulfuric acid from just sulfur is to light the sulfur on fire. The sulfur dioxide that's produced can then be dissolved in water producing sulfurous acid. Oxidizing the sulfurous acid gives us sulfuric acid. A process very similar to this already occurs in nature. Active volcanoes are responsible.
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This video is strictly for demonstration purposes only.

[@MadScientist267]

That "excess H2O2" contributes to the formation of the transient H2SO5, peroxymonosulfuric acid, or "Caro's acid"... or as is more commonly known, "piranha solution". 🙃

[@cranialconstruction2218]

Thanks! I did think of that but wanted to keep focus on the acid.

[@MadScientist267]

@@cranialconstruction2218 No issue. It would have been rather weak anyway with the conditions, as there was a lot of water vs acid there once they were mixed and like you said it breaks down with heat and time, so by the time you concentrated it, it was back to just sulfuric anyway.

[@advasity339]

You know what?... I like this. This is cool.

[@thawatchaichuanprasit915]

Great video! Thank you for making it. I live in Sweden and it's really hard to get your hand on sulfuric acid and nitric acid so you would need to making it them yourself which this video will proved to help :D

[@phizc]

Agreed.. Too bad H2O2 is so expensive/hard to get.. 1000kg of sulfur cost only 9500 Norwegian Kroner. 😅 They probably don't ship to us plebes anyway. 😢

[@philouzlouis2042]

Hi Cranial Construction, Nice video and demo-procedure. Just as a side note, are you sure Ba(2+) is "the revelation" product for SO4(2-), will Ba(2+) not also be a reactant of SO3(2-) and also form a white precipitate of BaSO3 just like BaSO4 does? 9 augustus 2024 Side note; based on your video of making CaSO3 what is a white precipitate just like CaSO4 (anhydrous gypsum); I know now for sure that BaSO4 and BaSO3 are even more unsoluble than their calcium cousins and do both precipitate; so deffinitely IT is not a proof a all for specifically distinguishing between SO4(2-) or SO3(2-). BTW just an idea about reduction of nitrate into nitrite via CaSO3; it works via reduction via C, starch, cellulose, wood dust, dextrose,... So maybe it could work with sulfides like (Na2S, CaS, BaS), plain S, balck CS (fused mix of molten sulfur and C black of fumes?). PHZ (PHILOU Zrealone from the Science Madness forum) (Chemical and Biochemical engineer specialized in organic chemistry)

[@chemistryscuriosities]

Great information!

[@madmattdigs9518]

This is particularly interesting to me. Because when I was a kid, I attempted to do this very thing. I used to read a lot about how to make my own chemicals. Sulfuric acid seemed so simple. I did succeed in producing a very diluted product. But I couldn’t use it for what I wanted to do with it. Eventually I realized I could just buy a much more concentrated product at the hardware store.

[@guytech7310]

SO2 + V2O5 (Catalyst) + O2 -> 2SO3 + H20 (Contact process) -> H2SO4 And it can be very concentrated.

[@procactus9109]

Lol OMG that phone message tone had me checking my shit. Even rewind 3 times to make sure... Cheers dude

[@cranialconstruction2218]

LOL yeah I didn't even notice that it was recorded until I was editing the clips.

[@placeholerwav]

this is really cool, i wish more videos on this process existed

[@cranialconstruction2218]

Thank you!

[@Polkem1]

Can only see this working in a much larger scale, isn’t too bad seeing how cheap Sulfur is. Sciencemadness has some really good threads and even a publication of a Sulfur trioxide synthesis, can use it to make concentrated sulfuric acid, only down side is the dangers of so3. Anyways good video!

[@tracybowling1156]

Another very fun video!

[@chemistryscuriosities]

This is how I used my ozone generator to ozonate…. Stuff.

[@UFO_researcher]

I think you could also use 10x 3% H2O2, is that correct?

[@christopherleubner6633]

As sufuric acid is easier to get than conc H2O2 in the states its a bit of a demo more tgan anything else. One thing you might want to try is reacting SO2 with ozone as that should generate extremely pure SO3,should also be a chemoluminescebt reaction as tge other product would be singlet oxygen that would quickly decay with red light

[@cranialconstruction2218]

Yes, it was meant to be a "demo". Thanks for the input!

[@guytech7310]

H2O2 can be concentrated by freezing OTC H2O2. I believe its possible to get up to about 20%, but I never tried it.

[@DancingRain]

Why do you want to get rid of SO₃? Sulfur trioxide dissolves in water to directly produce sulfuric acid.

[@cranialconstruction2218]

Great point but it would have caused a problem. But adding the H2O2 later would have then led to some of the final product being pirahna (H2SO4 + H2O2) solution, and not H2SO4.

[@lagrangiankid378]

​@@cranialconstruction2218this is not a problem as Caro's acid is unstable and will degrade to sulfuric acid and oxygen gas in a few days.

[@Chris47368]

I would also imagine that bubbling ozone through the solution would be a substitute for hydrogen peroxide too? Though depending on the ozone source and method of adding it to solution, it probably won't be as fast of an reaction....

[@guytech7310]

Yes, but very slow. Commerically its made via contact process.

[@bpark10001]

You should put the H2O2 in the water before bubbling the SO2 through it. Sulfur will be oxidized to +6 state as it comes in & lose its volatility so won't be lost. You will be able to process & absorb much more SO2 in given amount of water.

[@event-zero]

would that work for a lead acid battery.

[@juslitor]

can 30% h2o2 be substituted with 12% in suitable upscaled amounts ? 30% is controlled substance in many parts of the world.

[@ejkozan]

well, as you dilute it, only the amount of "pure" peroxide in the solution is important, so yes, you would have just more diluted solution at the end

[@lagrangiankid378]

You can easily concentrate the 12% solution by evaporating the water down, it won't get above 35% as at that point you need a vacuum to not decompose more hydrogen peroxide than the water you are removing, but up to a 30% it works fine, it will just take you some time.

[@pieterveenders9793]

You can boil down or distill hydrogen peroxide, so 12% should still be fine as long as you concentrate it beforehand.

[@nattsurfaren]

I'm looking for something that doesn't involve hydrogen peroxide. h2o2 is something that is restricted in many countries.

[@guytech7310]

V2O5 (Pottery supply) Converts SO2 into SO3, You can use it to make Oleum or H2SO4 via contact process.

[@cscalc]

jeremiah 15:22 doesn't exist?

[@cranialconstruction2218]

My mistake. Thank you. It was supposed to be 15:21.