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Author: Subject: Sulfuric Acid from Sulfamic Acid?
dischem
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shocked.gif posted on 19-7-2014 at 15:58
Sulfuric Acid from Sulfamic Acid?


So I recently found out my University has access to ACS Publications' papers. I was sifting through papers on Sulfamic acid, and came across this interesting tidbit.

Quote:

At low temperature chlorine reacts with Sulfamic acid or
its salts to form the N-halogen derivative which at ordinary
temperatures is readily hydrolyzed, yielding sulfuric acid (53).

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(53) Traube and von Drathen, Ber., 51, 111 (1918).


Can anyone shed some light on this? My initial reaction was that I could set up electrolysis of brine to produce the chlorine and bubble it though a solution of Sulfamic acid to produce Sulfuric acid. The net reaction would be something like...

Code:
H3NSO3 + H2O -> H2SO4 + NH3


But as everyone knows...Ammonia and Chlorine is a big no no because of NCl3. My question is, can I set up the environment in such a way that promotes the immediate decomposition of NCl3? I have no idea if the "N-halogen derivative" would decompose back into elemental Chlorine, HCl, or what. I can find nothing at all on the N-halogen derivatives. If it decomposed back into Chlorine then we could have a runaway reaction even if any NCl3 decomposed immediately, as the limiting reagent would be the Sulfamic acid itself.

Wikipedia says:

Quote:
The reaction of excess hypochlorite with sulfamic acid or a sulfamate salt gives rise reversibly to both N-chlorosulfamate and N,N-dichlorosulfamate.[7][8][9]

HClO + H2NSO3H -> ClNHSO3H + H2O
HClO + ClNHSO3H -> Cl2NSO3H + H2O


Thoughts? I think this could be quite valuable. Even though it takes a long time, Sulfamic acid is cheap as hell, available, and during the production of the Sulfuric acid you would be producing Sodium Hydroxide at the same time (if you went the electrolysis route).

Can we set this up so the NCl3 decomposes right away? If so, would it be safe? Should I try this? Any specific precautions I should take besides the obvious?

Thanks!
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[*] posted on 2-8-2014 at 19:54


There is also a part in the paper that says the Sulfamic Acid reacts with chlorates to produce sulfuric acid. I'm making some sodium chlorate now and I'm going to give it a shot reacting it with the sulfamic acid. I'll update.

Anyone have any thoughts on this yet?
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[*] posted on 3-8-2014 at 01:46


I would think twice about mixing chlorates with a reducing agent like sulphamic acid.

Also, I'm pretty sure that the reaction of chlorate and sulphamate will give a product that's contaminated with chloride.
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[*] posted on 5-8-2014 at 03:00


Agreed, I'm not sure what will happen, very small quantities will be used at first.

Good point about chloride contamination, I didn't think about that. I'll give it a try and see what happens. I've got easy access to sulfamic acid, yet very little access to sulfuric, so I'd love to make this work if possible.
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