> chemistry > acides > acide-sulfurique > making-sulfuric-acid-by-electrolysis-of-cuso4-aussie-chemist

Making Sulfuric Acid by Electrolysis

Aussie Chemist - 2016-12-18

Today, I finally had my first experimental video published, and there will be more. And if you want me to make a video about any experiment, please leave a comment below. I will try the best I can.

How to obtain graphite electrode from Zinc carbon battery link https://youtu.be/vCFkqV2yzkY

Mexi Chemia - 2017-10-24

Good vid, but the intro sound and the warning made me think you were making a satire of nurd rage

Dispatcher - 2017-11-10

this guy sounds like a Chinese immigrant that picked up an aussie English accent.

pyrosash - 2020-12-17

YES
I was thinking what the fuck is this

Wayne Riesterer - 2019-06-10

Great to see a warning at the start of the video and a nice and clean workspace. Keep up the good work :)

-- - 2018-07-03

Nurd rage in the beginning but this is the video I was looking at very good video. Had to like

Gabriel Lay - 2017-10-20

great , good !!

Mathew Zacharia - 2020-01-25

Can I use this sulfuric acid in my 12v battery? And yea good work making this video.

ur mum gay - 2019-08-20

Hey i love your videos. Would you mind sharing exactly what percentage of the water will be sulfuric acid once all the copper sulfate has reacted? Much love from Sweden.

Aussie Chemist - 2019-08-20

ur mum gay that depends on how much copper sulfate you added to the water, a higher concentration of Sulfuric acid would be obtained by adding excessive copper sulfate , they will dissolve as the reaction progress

Everything Dangerous - 2019-07-07

i love you dude!

Bradyn Austin - 2017-07-30

Good job dude !!

Aussie Chemist - 2017-07-30

thanks

Barrie Hemming - 2020-01-01

Nurd Rage is well worth a bit of satire, I really like this guys chemistry.

Lion Cub - 2019-05-24

Hi did you work out what concentraction of H2SO4 can be achieved? Will a titanium rod work as electrode or will the titanium also go into solution? Thanks.

Matty - 2018-05-22

You should probably put subtitles at the bottom of the clip.

Dennis Hofmann - 2019-03-08

Tank yo for showing mah dis. It is vary impotant to kno. I liek dat wi sher de sem accent

James - 2019-09-20

Yo where did you buy your chinese copper sulfate?

Werner Hiemer - 2019-04-21

Aussies speak that way? Sounding like a toddler got stollen it's toy and about to start crying. Even if not it goes pitching up and sonor at the same time back and forth.

Jean Pierre Daviau - 2017-10-01

On ebay I see carbon electrodes and graphite electrode. Is there a best one?

Aussie Chemist - 2017-10-05

If you looking at doing electrolysis for the long run, Pt coated Titanium are the best choice. graphite makes a lot of messy dust and has to be regularly replaced,

Jean Pierre Daviau - 2017-10-05

I agree. I red thare was a lot of false Pt coated Titanium.

Modern Hacker - 2018-08-22

Where to buy platinum wire?and how much it costs? ???????????

MysteriusBhoice - 2018-09-03

I have a more effective method for producing H2SO4 that is moderately scalable
it uses drywall or hydrated gypsum as paste cathode with steel rod in the middle
how 2 video comming soon

Materials:
then the anode is a lead coil
the cell construction involves 3 containers
paper sheet (seperator barrier)
cotton (seperator)
1 water bottle (smallest)
1 glass jar (medium)
1 metal/glass pot (large)
The electrolyte is sodium sulfate made by reacting CaSO4 with NaOH
to get starting electrolyte
PSU 12v with max current of >10A

construction and setup:
The water bottle has holes poked into the sides to let water in and a sheet of paper
is rolled and placed on side of bottle.
Cotton is added at the bottom to seel the air gap of the paper roll in the bottle.
The water bottle is filled with hydrated gypsum do not use plaster or it will solidify
a steel rod is inserted in the midle.
Add some of the starting electrolyte to this and keep it damp till the paper is wet on the sides
then place it in the medium glass jar and fill that up with the rest of the electrolyte.
Then you place the lead coil in the solution of the glass jar.
the setup is placed in a metal/glass cooling container filled with water to prevent overheating.
the cell is hooked up where the steel is the cathode(-) and the lead is the anode(+)
run it for as long as you can replacing the central cathode to further concentrate the acid but make sure
not to deplete the sodium ions.

Post run cleanup:
remove the cathode from the center of the cell.
WARNING!! do not turn off the power supply untill the cathode is removed or the electrolytes may react and BOIL!!
also chloride contamination may cause release of HCl gas.
filter the electrolyte from the glass jar and place in the freezer until precipitate comes (NaHSO4+Na2SO4) and save it for future runs.
the liquid is then boiled to remove HCl contamination then distilled to get pure H2SO4.

Mikael Björnson - 2018-07-09

Trey Parker, is that you?

Aussie Chemist - 2018-07-09

Mikael Björnson no idea who that is

TheRolemodel1337 - 2018-07-08

i searched for your magnetic stirrer SH-2 and the first link i opened states that the real ones are from "faithful" while the ones from joanab are fake :p

Aussie Chemist - 2018-07-08

TheRolemodel1337 I was just looking for a budget hot plate and I saw one around 100 bucks. it works just fine, I don’t really see where the problem is

TheRolemodel1337 - 2018-07-08

no problem :p
i was looking for a cheap hotplate aswell thats why i even bothered to look it up
faithful claims that their heating elements are superior and less prone to faliure
they call joanlab a cheaper rip off (they sell for like 15€ less than the faithful ones)
does yours reach the claimed 380°C? maybe their claim is just an ad for their product after all

Aussie Chemist - 2018-07-08

TheRolemodel1337 I’m sure it can get above 300, I don’t really use it for intensive heating, be aware the plate surface is made of Al , you should avoid any spills.

TheRolemodel1337 - 2018-07-08

thx for the info m8 :)

Amr Saeed - 2019-12-11

hi , i used 12 volt battery . i used lead anode and copper cathode . the battery cathode become too hot makes the wire almost melting . and i used pc power supply but also it was broken

Aussie Chemist - 2019-12-12

😳...... 12 volts are a bit too high , idk whether or not you were exaggerating , the MP of copper is over 1000 C.....

Amr Saeed - 2019-12-13

@Aussie Chemist i meant the wire insulator .

Jean Pierre Daviau - 2017-09-30

How long did the electrolisys took? 2days fore 1 liter. So 200 ml should take 10 hours.

Aussie Chemist - 2017-09-30

it also depends on the current and the surface area of the electrodes.

Jean Pierre Daviau - 2017-10-01

Ah. I have only one stick of graphite and a copper pipe for the negative. Is one amp too much?

Aussie Chemist - 2017-10-01

The optimum current is based on the concentration of CuSO4 and the surface area of the electrodes, just adjust the current to where H2 is just about to be generated

Jean Pierre Daviau - 2017-10-01

Thank you so much for your answers.

Jean Pierre Daviau - 2017-10-05

For pool, there is a product that aglomerates around particles that are too small to be filtered.
Could we use something similar to filter the carbon dust in the solution. The problem is that H2SO4 burn the paper I use to filter.

Aussie Chemist - 2017-10-05

it shouldn't burn paper while diluted, sorry I never had to deal this problem as i buy chemicals from chemical suppliers. lab grade cellulose filters should stop those particles from getting through,(but it is no good if you dont have access to those things) coffee filters are not very reliable capture fine particles. from my experience dealing with fine particles they trend to block the filter, I usually let the suspension to settle for few days and carefully extract the upper cleaner layer( be aware that you will lose some solute that way) in fact, if you are going to concentrate the acid by distillation as i showed in one of my another video, i say dont bother about the filtration as those impurity will not make it to the receiver

Aussie Chemist - 2017-10-05

and this way makng H2SO4 is not cost wise if you dont have much use of the byproduct Copper, even if you do, it doesnt seem justified for the cost either as copper sulfate is made using sulfuric acid. just buy them if you can, the reason why i did this cuz at the time i was desperate for it and didnt have time to look up the black market, ( Tbh it's still cheaper buying it directly off the BM than making it yourself)

Walter Sobchak - 2019-03-04

@Aussie Chemist about the guys question shouldn't celite/diatomaceous earth filter it??

Jean Pierre Daviau - 2017-09-29

What are the quatities of coper sulfate and water?

Aussie Chemist - 2017-09-29

Jean Pierre Daviau if you are looking at making decent amount of sulfuric acid this way, then make a saturated solution with extra solid CuSO4 in the flask, less the water less the trouble for the distillation later, if you just want explore the science, I would recommend to have a concentrated solution, a certain amount of ions are required to let electrons flow freely. the exact ratio isn't critical

Jean Pierre Daviau - 2017-09-30

Thank you very much.

Jean Pierre Daviau - 2017-09-30

I made 50 g of copper sulfate with 90 g of water.= 200 g copper s., 360 ml water

Jean Pierre Daviau - 2017-10-04

After boiling the water out , I have 50 ml of h2so4 strong enough to burn a paper. Is this 10% yield?

Aussie Chemist - 2017-10-04

Jean Pierre Daviau how much CuSO4 was used ? Anhydrous or hydrated?

Jeff John - 2017-08-15

You could have used HCl and H2O2 to dissolve the copper at the end and saved your Nitric.. eh?

Aussie Chemist - 2017-08-15

Jeff John yeah the problem there was I didn't have any HCl, seems there is a regulation about it, cuz some stupid people use it to make some sketchy hydrochloride salts

Aussie Chemist - 2017-08-17

lucifer yeah i am aware of that, but my lab is not in Oz, at where i live there are very strict laws on glassware, had to do it overseas

Angel All Love - 2017-10-03

Hmm, although it was absolutely the same intro as "nurdrage", the pitch was just a bit higher. Good job, vanilla ice

KillTheSource - 2018-01-07

your voice is so annoying but the content is great!! pls learn how to speak more motivating or interresting (sry for my bad english i'm german)