NurdRage - 2015-06-27
Glassware generously provided by http://www.alchemylabsupply.com/ Use the discount code "copper" for a 5% discount. Donate to NurdRage! Through Patreon (preferred): https://www.patreon.com/NurdRage Through IndieGoGo: http://igg.me/at/NurdRage/x/2114862 Through YouTube Fan Funding (click on support button): http://www.youtube.com/NurdRage Through Bitcoin: 1NurdRAge7PNR4ULrbrpcYvc9RC4LDp9pS In this video we make sulfuric acid from sulfur and water using electrolytically generated bromine as the catalyst. Warning: Bromine and sulfur bromides are volatile and toxic. This might be done outside or in a fume hood. We start with 16g of sulfur in a 250 ml beaker. We install 5 lantern battery carbon electrodes for the anode and a copper wire for the cathode. To this setup we add 200mL of 5M hydrobromic acid. The copper cathode is readjusted to be as physically close to the top of the electrolyte as possible while still being immersed in it. A current is then applied of less than 2 amps. The electrolysis is performed for 40 hours with occasional stirring and addition of water to make up for evaporative loses. Whats happening is the electrolysis converts hydrobromic acid to bromine and hydrogen. The hydrogen bubbles away and the bromine reacts with sulfur to produce disulfur dibromide. This in turn reacts with more bromine and water to produce sulfuric acid and hydrobromic acid. At the end of the run, the solution is filtered and then refluxed for 30 minutes to drive the conversion to completion. The solution is then distilled to first recover water, then hydrobromic acid and finally sulfuric acid.
True chemist on youtube. Your contributions towards public education is greatly appreciated. One day, we'll make a bust out of you once we know your identity.
@***** Shhh
@*****
First we attack Iron Maiden, then Led Zeppelin. How dare these western dogs misappropriate the names of elements?!
+Gareth Dean lol
Why don't you worry about identifying the best method to produce sulfuric acid officer nosey
To Harry
I'm showing this to my bromides back at home.
@Goldfish_Vender You don't think they'll find it a little too shocking?
Hah. Stop.
🤦♂️
Can something like this work with galena instead of sulfur?
I guess you could roast the galena to produce either lead metal or white lead and SO2 (assuming lead sulfide roasts like other semi-noble metal sulfides), and lead the gas into an electrolytic cell with HBr. The reaction between aqueous SO2 and Br2 should be pretty fast, producing sulfuric acid and regenerating HBr. You could bubble Cl2 and SO2 together, but I’m assuming you won’t have access to chlorinating chemicals in a zombie apocalypse.
I.
Cody'sLab if you have a supply of galena, first I suggest checking if it’s argentiferous. If it’s from a silver mine it will be. Pulverise the galena with an equimolar quantity of lead sulphate from old lead acid batteries. You need to heat the.mixture to liberate sulphur dioxide and metallic lead. The sulphur dioxide is oxidised with air over a catalyst to produce Sulfur trioxide. This gas in turn is absorbed into concentrated sulphuric acid to produce oleum. The oleum is poured very very very very very slowly into water to produce sulphuric acid. If the original galena was argentiferous, silver can be extracted using the Parkes process.
@CheeseCake LP soluble not solubal.... distill not destill...
@Burken Productions thanks :D fixed it. Not a native speaker...
Thank you everyone for supporting me on patreon, indiegogo and youtube fan funding! My next video will be a thank you and shoutout to all contibutors.
+NurdRage I have a challenge that no one on youtube has figured out yet, perhaps you'd like a go?
Chlorate and perchlorate can be made through electrolysis of the corresponding chloride salt. However what you get seems to be a mixture of chlorate and perchlorate. None of the chemists and amateurs that have posted videos about these experiments have analysed how much of the product is chlorate and how much is perchlorate. If you can analyse this, for example by titration, it would be interesting to see at which point you get almost only perchlorate. It would also be interesting to see if there is any point where you get chlorate- but no perchlorate ions.
It can be determined mathematically, but there's no guarantee that this theoretical point is the same as the practical point.
Also, thank you for making all these outstanding videos!
+GamingWithViro Viro What's your website? I doubt anything you said is true.
Sulfur is so messy and stinky. Sulfur doesn't like to get wet, so its a pain to work with, and obviously, stinks to high heaven xD
+Szakembőr TV TMIAE It wouldn't be as effective and would produce a lot of waste chorine gas I would think, since it wouldn't want to sink as much in the water as bromine.
sir do you know how to remove elemental sulfur (snake sulfur/Gardening) powdered 90% off of non porous surfaces in the house. I noticed that the sulfur comes out of towels blankets and clothes but will not come off tables, door handles and hard surfaces, however i did notice last summer in my shed that the heat on hard objects made the sulfur wipe right off even the residue. the thing is now its not summer and i am looking for a safe way to bring a heating element in the house i do not want to boil any chemicals in the house and im not a chemist is there any way you could think to get out of hard surfaces its really irritating to my skin. i have tried cleaners such as lysol, windex ammonia, h202 just to name a few i have also tried a heated stem cleaner 290 degrees F. Its really stubborn.
Thanks for the video!
really glad at the sudden increase in video production.
@Connor Murray We don't know if NurdRage is a he or she definitively.
@Aidan Gieg its easy to tell its a she, just look at her arms and hands
we are discussing the gender of a chemist on a channel dedicated to learning... this seems slightly off, and i can't identify why...
@Derek Westlund Me either...
@Connor Murray those still isn't definitive.
My $2 going to good use. This is the type of stuff I'd wished I had learned in chemistry class, but no we just got the girls track coach doubling as a chemistry teacher.
You should put the links for the funding in all your videos
@gladion00 Brilliant idea! i'm on it.
@NurdRage It also looks like the vapors from the reaction corroded your alligator clips on the electrodes pretty badly.
@tGhIeNrGmEiRte kek mmmkek
@Tom D kek
Don't judge guys, its his only form of communication.
@Tom D i believe its some rap shit... still stupid
+UNNÖTIGE VIDEOS It has nothing to do with hiphop culture lol wtf, its from twitch.
Wouldn't a mixed metal oxide (MMO) anode work? I've seen good deals for them on eBay.
Don't know what this guy is talking about 100% of the time but I still watch it😅
one of the best chemistry videos on youtube ive watched this many times
A video every week and I can't be any happier!
Yay, love when videos start confusing me
Please, next time when you have a more effective technique show us more details on what temp we should distill at and the voltage and amps you use for electrolysis.
To heck with the yield: forge boldly onward! Nice job and interesting.
5:32 I 100% agree - sulfur is a huge pain in the ass to remove. Do you know of a method to clean up sulfur residue using something other than hydrocarbon based solvents?
I always enjoy watching your videos thank you! Before watching them i had almost zero interest in chemistry. Based on an earlier suggestion of yours i looked and bought robert bruce Thompsons home chemistry book and have been slowly building up a small amount of chemistry equipment. I have successfully completed about 2% of your experiments but still enjoy watching every one of them. I particularly like the safety element of you include in your videos since i dont have a lab nor a fume hood. It's great to have you back. I know from trying to get my own lab equipment that it can be expensive and after watching your previous video will try to throw some funds your way. Thank you and look forward to seeing more of your videos! By the way really liked the video on the thermocouple. Listening to you freak out on the price tag issue was funny as hell!
Wow such a complicated process... This is why I love chemistry!
Cool storu, bro.
Thanks for the short intro video, I really appreciate it,
hi, when may I know when the electrolysis has finished, what should I have in the beaker to start the reflux and how can I identify it.
Wait? Why does inocydia take me here?
I remember 'discovering' a process like this when reading about sulfur chlorides. (Salt and hydrogen peroxide.) I can imagine there wouldn't be much about this in the literature as it's basically just cobbled together from interesting reactions, a possibility but likely not of industrial importance.
Amazing video again NR!! I love waking up and watching some awesome chemistry porn.. you are such a great asset to our community.
The dirty sulphuric acid looks like what you get from Home Depot or hardware stores as drain cleaner,. Do you think there is any correlation of their process?
@Ryan Jones Likely not. For one, this process seems to be new or at least extremely obscure. From what i know of drain cleaner acid is that it's regular sulfuric acid from the contact process but is of a very low grade. It's usually from the wastes of other industries so it has large amounts of impurities.
@NurdRage i have found that rooto professional is the purest of the crap acids.
i have seen technical grade acids with more crap in them
5:34 and lead , and tungsten electrodes ??
Amazing video as always Nurdrage! Thank you! Hopefully you can find some cheap Platinized anodes that will work for you. Also, I doubt MMO would work, but if you care to try it I have a bunch of surplus mesh MMO anode material, I could send you a couple strips to play with.
Great Job! I am doing this, using pieces of catalytic converter with platinum plating as my catalyst! :) Thanks!
I love watching your videos. I did not do well in Chemistry in high school, but with the way you explain things, I can follow along and understand how you're getting from Point A to Point B without feeling like a complete dunce. So, thank you.
I wonder if this works with hydrochloric acid — that would be a major improvement, as there would be no trichlorides and cheaper
4:14 Would you try a thin layer of carbon disulfide to dissolve the sulfur residues? I hope it doesn't react with sulfuric acid
It’s been awhile since this video came out...any updates to the process?
It's so cool that you discovered a new process of making sulfuric acid.
Can hydrobromic acid substituted with some other acid?
Amazing!
I love how much you love to do what you do..
Nurdrage! I just wanted to say that this video is awesome and that I'm really happy that you've been making more videos. Also I'd like to apologize for not supporting you financially. I'm a student and things are rough but once I graduate I'll be donating. Keep it up!
Love your videos keep it up. Also I wish I could donate but unfortunately I can't:(
wait you made this process! cool
Super intriguing method! Can't wait to see or read about your improvements -especially due to the lack of sources for "electrobromination" route of acid production. Top notch as always
You rock bro, thanks for the lessons. Maybe you can put a filter/screen on the rod/rods to hold the graphite dust? Probably cost some power through resistance though I guess..That was alot of current though and it took forever...Fully submerged electrodes may make a difference by avoiding gas but I don't know for sure.
@NurdRage can you explain how the Br2 + 2S --> Br2S2 works, can't figure it out myself. Btw nice work and keep u the videos!
try dissolving the sulfa first?
Recomended current density for a graphite anode is 30mA/cm^2 :) And bromide concentration in the solution also matters, because too low may also cause excessive anode wear. Hope this helps!
omg chemistry
Awesome videos, it would be rad to follow in the great inventors foot steps who photography was invented with silver iodide and the deguerre process with mercury.
Ur awesome nurd rage. Good to have u back!
I always learn cool things watching your channel. Cheers!
electrobrine processes are wicked cool!!1
what is the cost of production? the current is 2 amps so the energy consumed is around 8.8 kwh. thats a lot
I was wondering how you removed the sulfur that coated your glassware. It indeed is a pain to clean. (Related experiment)
Nothing special unfortunately. Just a lot of brushing, rinsing, and some oven heating at high temp to burn off the residues followed by more brushing and rinsing.
NurdRage that is unfortunate, i still have some sulfur covered glassware i was hoping to clean in a non-dangerous way. Next to scrubbing my only way to clean sulfur covered glassware was heating in crudely distilled toluene in which sulfur is a little soluble in.
Miguel Sanchez - 2016-07-30
I didn't know Anonymous did Chemistry. Good for them
Alice Raspii - 2017-06-29
Miguel Sanchez needs more upvotes
Frumpus Dumpus - 2020-08-31
lmao this comment