woelen Posted October 18, 2005 Share Posted October 18, 2005 Is oleum more dangerous than con. sulphuric acid? Oh yes... concentrated sulphuric acid is a children's toy compared to oleum. Does it relate to their oxidation no. of the sulphur? No, both in oleum/SO3 and in sulphuric acid, the oxidation number of sulphur equals +6. It has to do with the EXTREME dehydrating properties of oleum. Concentrated sulphuric acid already is strongly dehydrating, but this is nothing compared to the dehydrating powers of oleum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanJ Posted October 18, 2005 Author Share Posted October 18, 2005 Oh yes... concentrated sulphuric acid is a children's toy compared to oleum. No' date=' both in oleum/SO3 and in sulphuric acid, the oxidation number of sulphur equals +6. It has to do with the EXTREME dehydrating properties of oleum. Concentrated sulphuric acid already is strongly dehydrating, but this is nothing compared to the dehydrating powers of oleum.[/quote'] Have you ever worked with this stuff? What does it look like? Cheers, Ryan Jones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woelen Posted October 18, 2005 Share Posted October 18, 2005 Have you ever worked with this stuff? What does it look like? Cheers' date=' Ryan Jones[/quote'] No, I have not worked with it personally. A friend of mine has made some of this himself. The stuff looks like an oily colorless liquid. He put a drop of the liquid (which was fuming like hell) on a piece of cardboard and it at once ate a hole in the piece. This looked really scary. Imagine what happens if you get a drop on your skin. Pure SO3 looks like silky white crystals, a little bit like snow. My friend had some of these crystals. He was really scared to have a drop of water in this stuff. That would result in the breaking of the glassware in which it is contained. On opening the vessel, my friend had his room totally filled with a thick white fume, while he had made just 1 ml of the stuff! Furtunately he has a good gas mask. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanJ Posted October 18, 2005 Author Share Posted October 18, 2005 No' date=' I have not worked with it personally. A friend of mine has made some of this himself. The stuff looks like an oily colorless liquid. He put a drop of the liquid (which was fuming like hell) on a piece of cardboard and it at once ate a hole in the piece. This looked really scary. Imagine what happens if you get a drop on your skin. Pure SO3 looks like silky white crystals, a little bit like snow. My friend had some of these crystals. He was really scared to have a drop of water in this stuff. That would result in the breaking of the glassware in which it is contained. On opening the vessel, my friend had his room totally filled with a thick white fume, while he had made just 1 ml of the stuff! Furtunately he has a good gas mask.[/quote'] Man, thats nasty stuff! Dosent Conc. Sulphuric Acid look a lot like oil too? Actually I'm quite ahppy with the acid I have - its dangerous enough as it is without having to get anything worse. Its no surprise that the public can't easiily get hold of thus stuff, like you said if you get this stuff in your skin you have a few problems... I've seen what Sulphuric acid does to sugar and thats anough to temm me to tread with care Cheers, Ryan Jones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdurg Posted October 18, 2005 Share Posted October 18, 2005 Man' date=' thats nasty stuff! Dosent Conc. Sulphuric Acid look a lot like oil too? Actually I'm quite ahppy with the acid I have - its dangerous enough as it is without having to get anything worse. Its no surprise that the public can't easiily get hold of thus stuff, like you said if you get this stuff in your skin you have a few problems... I've seen what Sulphuric acid does to sugar and thats anough to temm me to tread with care Cheers, Ryan Jones[/quote'] Yes. Concentrated H2SO4 is an oily, syrupy liquid. That'd kind of why it has the common name of 'oil of vitriol'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budullewraagh Posted October 18, 2005 Share Posted October 18, 2005 H2SO4 is a dessicant because it contains free SO3, which is just begging to be hydrolyzed. this is why H2SO4 is used for dehydration of alcohols via E1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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