Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Hydroxylamine --> sulfamic A .Reversible?

starman - 17-8-2012 at 18:54

The action of sulfur dioxide on hydroxylamine (or hydroxylammonium salts) is a well known route to sulfamic acid.

(NH3OH2)2 SO4 + 2SO2 --> 2NH2SO3H + H2SO4

Is this reaction reversible in practice?

aaparatuss - 17-8-2012 at 19:03

maybe with liquid oxygen and a very little axe

Nicodem - 18-8-2012 at 01:41

Quote: Originally posted by starman  
The action of sulfur dioxide on hydroxylamine (or hydroxylammonium salts) is a well known route to sulfamic acid.

(NH3OH2)2 SO4 + 2SO2 --> 2NH2SO3H + H2SO4

Is this reaction reversible in practice?

Every reaction step is reversible, but the equilibrium constant can be anything from near zero to near infinity. And consider also that the majority of reactions take course in a series of reaction steps, each having its own equilibrium! For this reason, it is unreasonable to expect a redox reaction like this one, with the two sides thermodynamically so extremely far apart, to possibly be reversible in any of the common sense of this term. Paradoxically however, it is "in principle" reversible, but nothing more than that. That's why the reversibility is a an arbitrary concept. When evaluating reversibility, all you need to do, is ask yourself: "Can the reversibility of the reaction, under any circumstances whatsoever, affect any of the observable results?"

See also https://www.sciencemadness.org/whisper/viewthread.php?tid=19...

barley81 - 18-8-2012 at 07:27

Hydrolysis of sulfamic acid will give you ammonium bisulfate. Hydroxylamine can be made by reacting sulfur dioxide with potassium nitrite to produce potassium hydroxylamine disulfonate (which crystallizes; adding extra potassium salts increases yield through the common-ion effect). The resulting salt is then hydrolyzed to produce hydroxylamine sulfate. Take a look at Brauer's amazing handbook of inorganic recipes in the Sciencemadness library for more hydroxylamine chemistry.