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Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid (Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen, and hydrogen, with the molecular formula H 2 SO 4.
The contact process is a method of producing sulfuric acid in the high concentrations needed for industrial processes. Platinum was originally used as the catalyst for this reaction; however, because it is susceptible to reacting with arsenic impurities in the sulfur feedstock, vanadium(V) oxide (V 2 O 5) has since been preferred.
A typical mixture is 3 parts of concentrated sulfuric acid and 1 part of 30 wt. % hydrogen peroxide solution; [1] other protocols may use a 4:1 or even 7:1 mixture. A closely related mixture, sometimes called "base piranha", is a 5:1:1 mixture of water, ammonia solution ( NH 4 OH , or NH 3 (aq) ), and 30% hydrogen peroxide.
It is still used today despite its legacy requirements for a complicated voltage cycle now known to be unnecessary. Variations of this process soon evolved, and the first sulfuric acid anodizing process was patented by Gower and O'Brien in 1927. Sulfuric acid soon became and remains the most common anodizing electrolyte. [1]
The lead chamber process was an industrial method used to produce sulfuric acid in large quantities. It has been largely supplanted by the contact process.. In 1746 in Birmingham, England, John Roebuck began producing sulfuric acid in lead-lined chambers, which were stronger and less expensive and could be made much larger than the glass containers that had been used previously.
In 2010, the United States produced more sulfuric acid than any other inorganic industrial chemical. [90] The principal use for the acid is the extraction of phosphate ores for the production of fertilizer manufacturing. Other applications of sulfuric acid include oil refining, wastewater processing, and mineral extraction. [47]
Oleum is produced in the contact process, where sulfur is oxidized to sulfur trioxide which is subsequently dissolved in concentrated sulfuric acid. [3] Sulfuric acid itself is regenerated by dilution of part of the oleum. The lead chamber process for sulfuric acid production was abandoned, partly because it could not produce sulfur trioxide or ...
This method is an acid heap leaching method like that of the copper method in that it utilises sulfuric acid instead of cyanide solution to dissolve the target minerals from crushed ore. The amount of sulfuric acid required is much higher than for copper ores, as high as 1,000 kg of acid per tonne of ore, but 500 kg is more common.