History of Sulfuric Acid

In the seventeenth century the German-Dutch chemist Johann Glauber prepared sulfuric acid by burning sulfur together with saltpeter (potassium nitrate, KNO3) in the presence of steam. As the saltpeter decomposes, it oxidizes the sulfur to SO3, which combines with water to produce sulfuric acid. In 1736, Joshua Ward, a London pharmacist, used this method to begin the first large-scale production of sulfuric acid. 

In 1746 in Birmingham, John Roebuck began producing sulfuric acid this way in lead-lined chambers, which were stronger, less expensive, and could be made larger than the glass containers which had been used previously. This lead chamber process allowed the effective industrialization of sulfuric acid production, and with several refinements remained the standard method of production for almost 2 centuries. 

John Roebuck s sulfuric acid was only about 35-40% sulfuric acid. Later refinements in the lead-chamber process by the French chemist Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac and the British chemist John Glover improved this to 78%. However, the manufacture of some dyes and other chemical processes require a more concentrated 

Ashar and K.R. Golwalkar, A Practical Guide to the Manufacture of Sulfuric Acid, Oleums, andSulfonatingAgents, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02042-6 l, 

The development of the less expensive and less easily contaminated vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) catalyst by BASF in Germany in 1915, combined with increasing demand for concentrated sulfuric acid by the chemical industry, has led to the gradual replacement of the lead-chamber process by the Contact Process. In 1930, sulfuric acid produced by the Contact Process accounted for only 25% of sulfuric acid production, while today nearly all sulfuric acid is manufactured in this way. 

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Wikipedia (2005) History of Sulfuric Acid. www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfuric acid... 

The first large chemical industries that developed in modern times involved the production of acids and alkalis. The most important industrial chemical used throughout history is sulfuric acid. Each year sulfuric acid tops the list of chemicals used by industry, and it is often said that a country s economic status can be gauged by the amount of sulfuric acid it consumes in a year. In ancient times sulfuric acid was produced by heating the ore green vitiriol, FeSO -mp-. 

The Stringfellow Superfund site in California poses analytical problems similar to those encountered with most waste sites across the United States and that may be best addressed via LC/MS based methods. Most of the organic compounds in aqueous leachates from this site cannot be characterized by GC/MS based methods. Analysis of Stringfellow bedrock groundwater shows that only 0.78% of the total dissolved organic materials are identifiable via purge and trap analysis (IQ). These are compounds such as acetone, trichloroethylene etc, whose physical properties are ideally suited for GC/MS separation and confirmation. Another 33% of the dissolved organic matter is characterized as "unknown", i.e., not extractable from the aqueous samples under any pH conditions and thus not analyzed via GC. Another 66% is 4-chlorobenzene sulfonic acid (PCBSA), an extremely polar and water soluble compound that is also not suitable for GC analysis. This compound, a waste product from DDT manufacture, is known to occur at this site because of the history of disposal of "sulfuric acid waste from industrial DDT synthesis. 

Appendix History of Manufacture of Sulfuric Acid (in India and Other Countries)... 

From its early isolation by Baeyer from the reaction of indigo with a mixture of sulfuric acid and sulfuric anhydride [1], indole—indigo+o/eum— has a remarkable history and has made a huge impact on society, as we will see in this chapter. The reader is referred to several general reviews on the chemistry and synthesis of indoles [2-11] and their role in society [12], Reviews devoted solely to indole ring synthesis are tabulated in Section 7 in this chapter. 

Preparation. The early history of the prepn of K perchlorate by the action of acids on K chlorate is reviewed in Ref 3. These authors found that treatment of 2—5g of K chlorate with 50ml of coned sulfuric ac gave an 11 % yield of K perchlorate. The sulfuric ac must be added slowly with cooling to the K chlorate, or expins may result, Similarly, nitric ac gave a yield of 15— 30%, 85% phosphoric ac gave a yield of 15%, and Cr trioxide gave a yield of 12-15%. Org acids failed to yield any perchlorate when heated with K chlorate (Ref 3). It can also be prepu by heating a mixt of solid K chloride with... 

MCA Case History No. 282 Erroneous addition of cone, sulfuric acid to sodium chlorate instead of sodium chloride caused an explosion owing to formation of chlorine dioxide [1]. Accidental contact of 93% acid on clothing previously splashed with sodium chlorate caused immediate ignition [2],... 

The most famous fungal metabolites are, of course, the penicillins and cephalosporins. The association of sulfur and penicillin has a curious history. Penicillin was investigated chemically in 1932 by Harold Raistrick and his colleagues.14 The antibacterial activity could be extracted into ether from acid solution but on solvent evaporation the residue was without antibacterial activity. Clearly, penicillin was not a well-behaved natural product If only Raistrick had carried out a back-extraction from ether into dilute alkali, penicillin might have become available in the 1930s (and Raistrick would have become a Nobel Laureate). 

A basic scientific investigation of fire retardancy, however, remained to be initiated by Gay-Lussac in France at the request of King Louis XVIII in 1821 who was again interested in reducing the flammability of theater curtains. This researcher noted that the ammonium salts of sulfuric, hydrochloric and phosphoric acids were very effective fire retardants on hemp and linen and that the effect could be improved considerably by using mixtures of ammonium chloride, ammonium phosphate and borax. This work has withstood the test of time and remains valid to this day. Thus the basic elements of modern fire retardant chemistry had been defined early in recorded history and remained the state of the art until early in the twentieth century. The most effective treatments for cellulosic materials being concentrated in Groups III, V and VII elements. 

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