Sulfuric acid

Chemical structure of sulfuric acid

Sulfuric acid is a chemical compound mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen and hydrogen, with the molecular formula H2SO₄. It is a colorless, odorless and viscous liquid that is miscible with water. Pure sulfuric acid does not exist naturally on Earth due to its strong affinity to water vapor; it is hygroscopic and readily absorbs water vapor from the air.

Safety

Concentrated sulfuric acid is highly corrosive towards other materials, from rocks to metals, since it is an oxidant with powerful dehydrating properties. Upon addition of sulfuric acid to water, a considerable amount of heat is released; in the reverse procedure of adding water to the acid the heat released may boil the solution, spraying droplets of hot acid during the process. Upon contact with body tissue, sulfuric acid can cause severe acidic chemical burns and even secondary thermal burns due to dehydration. Dilute sulfuric acid is substantially less hazardous without the oxidative and dehydrating properties; however, it should still be handled with care for its acidity.

Uses

Sulfuric acid is a very important commodity chemical. It is widely produced with different methods, such as contact process, wet sulfuric acid process, lead chamber process and some other methods. Sulfuric acid is also a key substance in the chemical industry. It is most commonly used in fertilizer manufacture, but is also important in mineral processing, oil refining, wastewater processing, and chemical synthesis. It has a wide range of end applications including in domestic acidic drain cleaners, as an electrolyte in lead-acid batteries, in dehydrating a compound, and in various cleaning agents. Sulfuric acid can be obtained by dissolving sulfur trioxide in water.

Mixing sulfuric acid with potassium permanganate and acetone, or with sodium chlorate and sugar generates an exothermic chemical reaction that can be used to start fires.

Dependencies

• Hydrogen
• Oxygen
• Sulfur
  • Sulfuric acid
  • Sodium chlorate
  • Sugar
    • Fire
  • Acetone
  • Potassium permanganate
    • Fire

See also

• Boric acid
• Nitric acid
• Chemical compounds

References

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Sulfuric_acid, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors).

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Fire, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors).