Sulfur dioxide is an acidic, toxic and has an rotten smell characteristics. It can be prepared by burning sulfur or metal sulfide compound or hydrogen sulfide with oxygen. Sulfuric acid can be reduced to sulfur dioxide because sulfuric acid is an oxidizing acid. It is used in many industrial applications.
Here, we are going to learn about few characteristics of sulfur oxide and their effects.
SO2 is an acidic gas which dissolve in water to produce sulfurous acid (H2SO3). It is a weak acid.
If, SO2 is oxidized to SO3 by O2 and dissolve in water, sulfuric acid (H2SO4) is given.
This causes to acid rain which is one of the major environmental pollution method.
We cannot see a colour in SO2 gas. Therefore we cannot identify it by colour. Human nose can identify this pungent odor. SO2 is heavier than air.
0 - 0.1 ppm range is not dangerous. But more than that, it causes many health problems. Over 5 ppm, warnings of emergency situations should be activated.
Sulfur dioxide effects on healthSulfur, metal sulfide, metal sulfite compounds, sulfuric acid can be used to prepare sulfur dioxide gas with other different compounds at different physical conditions.
This method is used to prepare SO2 in industry to manufacture sulfuric acid. Sulfur (s), hydrogen sulfide (H2S) or metal sulfide (Na2S) can be used to produce SO2.
Add concentrated sulfuric acid to copper and heat the solution. Then sulfur dioxide, copper sulfate (CuSO4) and water are given as products. CuSO4 is blue colour.
Solid metal sulfite compounds react with dilute acids and give SO2.
Add a dilute acid to metal thiosulfate ( S2O32-). It gives SO2 and sulfur which is deposited as a pale yellow solid. This reaction is used to identify thiosulfate ion from sulfate ion in qualitative analysis.
Sulfur is heated with concentrated sulfuric acid. Sulfur is oxidized to sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid is reduced to sulfur dioxide.
Carbon is oxidized to carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulfuric acid is reduced to SO2.
- Crude oil contains sulfur as different compounds. These sulfur is removed or reduced in refining process. But some fuels contains little bit sulfur amount. When fuel oil is burnt in furnaces to generate the heat, SO2 is released. Sulfur in the crude oil is converted to H2S in sulfur removing process. If H2S is not used to produce another product such as sulfuric acid, H2S is burnt. It also produces SO2.
S or metal sulfide is burnt to produce SO2.
Cu + concentrated H2SO4
Copper is oxidized to Cu2+ while H2SO4 is reduced to sulfur dioxide which is a colouress gas.