Sulphuric acid Phillips

Although the commercial manufacture of sulphur trioxide and sulphuric acid by the catalytic process has attained success only in comparatively recent years, a patent was acquired in 1831 by P. Phillips of Bristol for the production of sulphuric acid in this way, the suggested catalyst being platinum.4 The commencement of the twentieth century saw the main difficulties overcome and the installation of an economical and commercial process in Germany. Since then the number of plants has increased largely and various modifications have been introduced in many countries. 

The manufacture of sulphuric acid by the synthesis of sulphur trioxide from sulphur dioxide and atmospheric oxygen in presence of heated platinum was patented in 1831 by Peregrine Phillips (son of Richard Phillips), a vinegar manufacturer in Bristol. The process was first worked to make fuming sulphuric acid by Messel (1875). 

Two// scales have been constructed, one below pH 0 and one above pH 14, for measuring the pKg values of strong acids and weak acids respectively, as discussed by Paul and Long (1957). These scales are constructed by the use of optically absorbing acids as indicators, just as bases are used for the Hq scale. There is little connexion between the two scales. Thus 4N-hydrochloric acid has Ho 1 4 but is only +0 1 on the H— scale (Phillips, 1961) the difference in sulphuric acid is rather less (Boyd, 1961). For H— in highly alkaline medium, see Rochester (1966), Stewart and O Donnell (1962). In this connexion, it should be noted that the basic properties of aqueous alkalies increase greatly with concentration, in a non-linear fashion (Schwarzenbach and Sulzberger, 1944). 

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