Does anyone know of a way to find out if an unidentifiable liquid is sulfuric acid?

 

pH tester won't be much help in this situation.

You can dissolve a soluble lead compound in water, and then add some of the liquid. If the liquid has sulfate in it, the lead will precipitate as a bright yellow powder.

despite test of sulphate one can also test for physical charachteristics like boiling point and melting point and viscocity. though temp measuring wont help that much as its melting and boiling points are little extreme

Since sulphuric acid can be identified in a number of ways, any unidentifiable liquid isn't sulphuric acid.

I guess you are talking about an unidentified liquid.

Where did it come from?

If it was in a working car battery it's probably safe to say its sulphuric acid. If it came in a bottle labeled "cola" and it's brown and fizzy then it's probably not sulphuric acid.

 

Boiling off any water present will give reasoanbly concentrated sulphuric acid which (after cooling) will blacken sugar.

Well this is how I got this liquid.

 

First, I drilled into a VRLA battery (Valve Regulated Lead Acid battery)

 

I then injected distilled water slowly to prevent over heating.

 

Then I poured this unnamed liquid from the battery hoping that its a mild concentration of H2SO4 but there is no way of knowing for sure.

 

Remember that VRLA batteries are nicknamed Acid Starved battery for obvious reason.

Was the battery flat or charged?

There's much more free acid in a charged one.

Well, I had checked the voltage and amp, and it didn't seemed to be flat.

 

If I was to oxidize the sulfur by burning it with pottasium nitrate procuring sulfur trioxide. And then spray mild H2SO4 on it, would I end up with pyrosulfuric acid (oleum)? Then mixing oleum with water should yield 98 to 99% sulfuric acid?

 

(3)H2SO4+SO3 -> H2S2O7

 

(4)H2S2O7+H2O -> (2)H2SO4

Btw, if you want to get sulfuric acid, many department stores sell in in the "train opener" section. Thats where I got mine. It did however have a strange black dye in it that interfered with its reactivity, but all I did was distill it leaving this wierd, viscous sludge.

 

 

But its still easier (and much cheaper) to get it this way as opposed to drilling open a battery.

the "train opener" section.

 

 

You could also look into just buying a bottle of it online.

Well, the main problem is that I never seen H2SO4 in any stores but I did see HCl at the most.

 

Also, transporting H2SO4 in Canada is strickly regulated. Calgary to be exact.

 

PS. Hmm train opener... I assume it opens trains

urghem....excuse me

 

"drain opener" in case someone couldn't figure it out

 

i did have to check several hardware stores, only one had it and i was so thrilled when i saw it. my Lowes department store had it, and you can also check online to make sure your hardware stores carry it

I've been through hundreds of hardware store and all they had was sodium hydroxide based opener. The best one was HCl but I had no use for it.

thats too bad, what country do you live in?

 

oh, duh, just looked at ur location

 

so they don't have lowes in canada?

 

 

this is the brand i buy (scroll to the bottom of the page)

 

http://www.roebic.com/bathroom.htm

its a little bit of a pain to distill it, but in the end, its worth it

 

see if you can buy some online or something

Hmm, maybe I've been looking at the wrong place. Im going to search up local pumbing stores in hope to find that acid opener. Is it a 60 or 90% solution when you first bought it?

90%, its concentrated, but remember, its inhibited

Have you tried buying from automotive spares shops? The setup may be different there but around here it's sold over the counter.

I havent seen sulfuric acid refills.

 

Anyways I finally got a maintainance free car battery. Does anyone know a safe method of draining the H2SO4 out of the battery?

 

There are no visible vents and plugs that I can see.

 

Change of plan.

 

I've obtained about 250ml of sulfuric acid from the battery. It was a brown, oily colour when it came out.

 

Is there a way to purify it then concentrate it?