Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Practicality of making colloidal sulfur?

silvergrahm - 5-1-2013 at 18:50

Hello,

I'm wondering what steps, and what equipment, would be necessary for making colloidal sulfur. A lot of information on making colloidal silver on the web (for some sort of alternative medicine scheme), but not much on other elements or compounds.

Thank you

S.C. Wack - 5-1-2013 at 19:36

http://chemmovies.unl.edu/chemistry/smallscale/SS056.html
one of many

AJKOER - 5-1-2013 at 20:21

OK, here is another less expensive, but more potentially annoying and toxic. Pass H2S into a solution of Bleach (NaOCl), which is actually used as a common commercial scrubber. Could also replace Bleach with H2O2.

H2S (g) + NaOCl (aq) --> NaCl (aq) + S (c)

One way of generating H2S is by adding water to Aluminum sulfide.

Please did not try this indoors or outside with close proximity to neighbors:o. Hydrogen sulfide is actually quite toxic (just a little better than HCN), and an insidious poison as it quickly deadens the sense of the smell and is also absorbed through the skin (sources differ on this last point). What I find particularly unnerving is the delayed mortality effect after receiving a fatal dose, which you may not be fully aware of (you are, in effect, a walking dead).


[Edited on 6-1-2013 by AJKOER]

Lambda-Eyde - 5-1-2013 at 20:23

Quote: Originally posted by AJKOER  
OK, here is another less expensive, but more potentially annoying and toxic.


Thiosulfate is pretty cheap and available, as is HCl, so I don't see how your method is cheaper. You have to acquire the sulfide (which I don't expect to be cheaper) or make it, which is impractical on a proper scale. Plus, there's the toxicity issue.

AJKOER - 5-1-2013 at 20:44

Lambda_Eyde:

I will agree that if one is easy access to Thiosulfate (no shipping fees) than it may definitely be the better (meaning cheap and certainly safer) route.

silvergrahm - 5-1-2013 at 20:50

Cool. That's easy enough. I currently have 1lb of sodium thiosulfate. But, when combined in solution with HCL, that would also yield Na in the solution in addition to elemental sulfur, right?

AndersHoveland - 5-1-2013 at 22:42

Sulfur dioxide reacts with hydrogen sulfide at ambient temperatures. When SO2 is simultaneosuly bubbled with H2S into water, the water turns a milky white color, with a slight yellowish tinge.

(2)H2S + SO2 --> (2)H2O + (3)S

or if you prefer
(16)H2S + (8)SO2 --> (16)H2O + (3)S8

[Edited on 6-1-2013 by AndersHoveland]

Endimion17 - 6-1-2013 at 03:00

Quote: Originally posted by silvergrahm  
Hello,

I'm wondering what steps, and what equipment, would be necessary for making colloidal sulfur. A lot of information on making colloidal silver on the web (for some sort of alternative medicine scheme), but not much on other elements or compounds.

Thank you


No, it's for charlatans and crackpots tricking people into ingesting heavy metal colloids and compounds which slowly turns their skin blue-gray and fucks up their viscera. Occasional topical application is sometimes beneficial, but ingestion is a pure snake oil procedure, also dangerous.

As for sulphur, the easiest way is to use sodium thiosulphate in acidic environment like sulphuric acid. The less concentrated reactants are, the finer colloid you get. It's a typical experiment used in measuring reaction rate.

AndersHoveland - 6-1-2013 at 03:19

Quote: Originally posted by Endimion17  
As for sulphur, the easiest way is to use sodium thiosulphate in acidic environment like sulphuric acid.

That certainly is true.

Solutions of sodium sulfite are able to dissolve elemental sulfur.

SO3[-2] + S --> S2O3[-2]

While acidic conditions cause the thiosulfate to decompose:

S2O3[-2] + 2 H[+](aq) --> H2O + SO2 + S

Assuming the sulfur dioxide remains dissolved, the colloidal sulfur can be redissolved back to a clear solution by the addition of a base.

zed - 7-1-2013 at 16:09

Could you ball-mill common gardening-type sulfur with or without water, to achieve your desired mesh? Seems like the cheapest.

AndersHoveland - 7-1-2013 at 16:33

That reminds me of another way to make colloidal sulfur - it can also be rather hazardous.
You can boil gardening-type sulfur with cement lime (calcium hydroxide) to form calcium polysulfides (and also some thiosulfate). Then add acid, and colloidal sulfur will be formed, along with some very smelly and poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas:

5 Ca(OH)2 + 10 S --> CaS2O3 + 5 H2O + 4 CaS2

I wrote "CaS2" in the equation, but higher polysulfides are also formed, for example CaS3, CaS4, etc

On acidicification, these polysulfides revert back to sulfur (in colloid form), along with hydrogen sulfide gas:

CaS2 + 2 HCl --> CaCl2 + S + SH2