[constant thinker]

I was wondering how they produced sulfuric acid commercially so I looked it up on wikipedia. I saw something intresting though about the chemical structure. The sulfur has 2 double bonded O's and 2 single bonded OH's.

Is there a mistake or is sulfur sharing electrons from it's 2p sub-level? Also S has an oxidation number of -2. I'm guessing that this must be because O has a strong affiliation for electrons.

I personally have never seen this before and am just kind of wonering.

See for yourself:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfuric_acid

[Mitch]

There is nothing weird. Except, I would of expected S to be +6 however.

[Will]

Sulfur has a 3p 'sub-level' with 4 electrons in it (3s²3p⁴). It can share elctrons from this. Sulfur compounds can have oxidation numbers of 6,4,2 and -2. Sulfur can be happy(!) with 2,4 or 6 bonds (I should really upgrade my molymod collection with sulfur atoms with 2 and 4 bonds  ).

In this case I think sulfur has an oxidation number of +6, not -6.
(Oxygens each -2 so -8 in sulfuric acid)
(Hydrogens +1 so +2 in sulfuric acid)
(Sulfur must therefore have an oxidation number of +6 in sulfuric acid)

Correct me if I'm wrong or inaccurate!

Sulfur chemistry is REALLY interesting- especially in organic chemistry- just look at what happens when you cut onions and garlics !

[constant thinker]

Ooops wait I wasn't paying attention when I was thinking this out. But generally don't the elements after the carbon family elect to gain electrons.? That's what got me thinking. But then again it's O and S so they should be covalently bonded.

[Mitch]

Everything in H2SO4 is covalently bonded

[constant thinker]

Yea I realize everything now. It was kind of a dumb question. From what I've noticed though, I generally don't see more than 4 bonds per an atom.