[angeloposteraro]

    Hello to all, I'm looking to form some sulfuric acid, fairly highly concentrated if possible, I have almost all common to semi-common chemicals as well as some rarer ones. many nitrates, chlorides, sulfates and various acids and bases. if any one can recommend any method of synthesis it would be much appreciated.

thanks - Angelo

[bakkurt]

Although sulfuric acid is fairly cheap to buy, you might try reacting sodium sulfate with hydrochloric acid and after diluting, reacting with silver sulfate to precipitate the chloride, filter and concentrate to obtain your sulfuric acid.

Na2SO4 + 2HCl --> H2SO4 + 2NaCl
NaCl + AgSO4 --> Na2SO4 + AgCl

Maybe you might directly use silver sulfate and hydrochloric acid (not in very concentrated medium):

Ag2SO4 + 2HCl --> 2AgCl + H2SO4

Just filter and concentrate...

[billnotgatez]

I thought that the wiki would have a discussion of lab preparation as well as manufacturing, but I could not find it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfuric_acid

On the other hand this link has some information that may help
http://www.sas.org/E-Bulletin/2002-03-08/chem/body.html

[angeloposteraro]

thank you this seems like a reasonable route, but would CuSO₄ replace the Na₂SO₄ with similar effect ? and what concentration are we looking at here?

[billnotgatez]

Sorry that my previous post did not directly discuss sulfuric acid production.
Below are some other links.
It looks like metal sulfates could be an initial source and I am wondering if Epsom salts would work.

http://www.ausetute.com.au/sulfacid.html

http://mooni.fccj.org/~ethall/h2so4/h2so4.htm

http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/chemweek/Sulf&top/Sulf&Top.html

[angeloposteraro]

 I was aware of the burning sulfur method, but I was straying away from it because of the rather dilute acid it tends to form, I think I'm going to go with CuSO₄ + HCl -> H₂SO₄ + CuCl₂

that is unless someone tells me otherwise.

when the two react the blue disappears and turns light green, leading me to believe that it is CuCl₂. but I welcome any argument

[billnotgatez]

It appears that copper chloride is fairly soluble.
How do you plan to remove it from the sulfuric acid?
Will Epsom salts work the same way as copper sulfate?

[angeloposteraro]

I'm not quite sure how i could extract it, but MgCl2 would cause the same complications, its just as soluable

[woelen]

Many experiments, requiring dilute sulphuric acid, also can be done with NaHSO4 (so-called pH-minus from swimming pool / spa suppliers).

Making sulphuric acid can be done fairly easily by leading SO2-gas through a solution of H2O2:

SO2 + H2O2 ---> H2SO4.


A decent source of SO2 is mixing NaHSO4 with Na2S2O5 or K2S2O5 (sodium/potassium metabisulfite, available from shops for breweries/wine makers, as disinfectant or anti-oxidant), adding a few drops of water, and gently heating. You will get quite a lot of SO2 in this way, and you can lead that through the H2O2.

A solution of 3% H2O2 will lead to approximately 10% H2SO4. Try to find a somewhat more concentrated solution of H2O2.

But still, making H2SO4 at home from other reagents is a difficult thing. The H2O2/SO2 route is a moderately practical one, but still it is a lot of hassle, especially if you need to use 3% H2O2. H2SO4 actually is one of those chems that you don't want to make, but should put more effort in finding a source for this.

It is used in some drain cleaners at 90+ % concentration.
It is used in car batteries. Battery acid has 30 to 35% concentration.

[FinEvitable]

Boiling the Battery acid should work!

I have seen battery acid top ups that are about 33% concentration.  It is possible to boil off some of the water to concentrate it, but you need to be carefull as sulphur trioxide is given off!! and you can also boil some of it off aswell.

According to the fiield handbook of explosives you can boil battery acid untill it is fuming!! but i havnt tried this method myself yet.

[NickNick]

I'm extremely intrigued by the method of simply dissolving copper sulfate in hydrochloric acid to obtain sulfuric acid and copper chloride. If you add enough copper sulfate to super staturate the solution, you should be able to put it in a cold place like the fridge (capped and sealed of course) and copper chloride crystals will form, leaving you will sulfuric acid and just a little copper impurity. But if you distill the sulfuric acid, you can get it completely pure maybe?

This seems to easy --- I think I've read somewhere that you can't make sulfuric acid by simply dissolving a sulfate in hydrochloric acid. If any acid work for this, it would most likely take nitric acid. But I have that also.

And what do you think about this method:
http://cavemanchemistry.com/cavebook/chsaltpeter3.html

[NickNick]

Ha, wait a minute I just realized this:

Adding a sulfate to hydrochloric acid definately will NOT create sulfuric acid because all the sulfur you eat would make sulfuric acid when it reacted with your stomach acid (which is hydrochloric acid) and you would then die if you ever ingested anything containing sulfur, which is not the case because sulfur is in everything...duh!

I know you can make nitric acid by dissolving a nitrate in sulfuric acid, but I don't think it goes the other way too. Sucks that no chemists will even bother responding to this thread. They'd much rather watch us squirrel around trying to discover a fantastic easy way to make sulfuric acid when the industrial world hasn't even found an easy way.

I think it's hopeless guys...lol..Sulfuric acid is simply a pain in the ass to make.

[Arkcon]

Ha, wait a minute I just realized this:

*SNIP*

Wow.  Why do I suddenly have the image of Homer Simpson standing over a flaming bowl of cereal?