Skip to main content

Sulfur

Sulfur or sulphur is a naturally occurring, yellow, water insoluble solid element. Its chemical symbol is S, its atomic number is 16 and its atomic weight is 32.064 sulfur is nonmetal and a member of the oxygen family of elements, which constitutes Group VIA of the periodic table. The discovery of sulfur predates recorded history, and the element has been used since ancient times. The early medical books of Dioscorides of Greece and Pliny the Elder mention sulfur, and fumes from burning sulfur were used in religious ceremonies and for fumigation. Alchemists recognized sulfur as a mineral substance that can be melted and burned. It was first classified as an element by Antonie Lavoisier in 1777.

Sulfur Occurrence

On earth, sulfur is widely distributed in its elemental state as a secondary mineral or as a volcanic deposit, as well as in combination with a number of metals. Large sedimentary deposits of the almost pure element, mainly of Tertiary age, are found in the coastal regions of Texas and Lousiana, on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico, and in Sicily, Sulfur occurs in some fossil fuels, most motably coal, in chemical combination with carbon and other elements, its removal is difficult. Sulfur is prevalent in the sulfide ores of iron (pyrite), zinc (sphalerite), and lead (galena). It also occurs as calcium sulfate (gypsum) and barium sulfate (barite). The magnesium and sodium sulfates are present in ocean water and in many mineral waters.
Sulfur occurs in living plant and animal tissue as part of the amino acids cysteine, cystine, and methionine. Organic sulfur compounds occur in garlic, mustard, onion, and cabbage and are responsible for the odor of skunks.
Sulfur Chain
Sulfur can found in the volcano mountain or can also from sulfur mining, the form of sulfur can be a flake or powder in chemical store, but in nature you can see like on the pictures below:

Sulfur stone

take sulfur


Sulfur effect to the lake

Sulfur is used to produce Sulfuric Acid in chemical industry by process solvay. On this plant will produce emission of sulfur dioxide and sulfur trioxide that very dangerous for civil. Sulfur trioxide very reactive to mucous and respiratory system, make people consciousness in a second contact time. On the industry this gas is eliminated by a certain equipment so can be taken and proceed immediately into sulfuric acid. Accident mass can happen on this plant if there is leakage on the process system, even the leakage gas immediately closed, but small gas released can make fatality.
Labels:

Comments

Aries said…
Interesting information. I think you should publish more often
November 13, 2008 at 9:51 AM
Margi said…
Thanks pak Aris, but to publish very often about chemistry it's realy need more thinking.
October 28, 2014 at 12:36 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Removing Iron Rust Using Electrochemical Process

One way to remove iron rust is by electrochemical process. The iron or metal that will be rusted is given a negative charge and the other electrode means that it is positively charged, so the rust will be released from the metal because negative ions will come out of the metal and go to the positive electrode. If the process is continued, the iron may become shiny, not because it is coated in therapy because the surface is partly faded. This is because the iron functions as a negative electrode, where the ions on the surface of the iron will decay and dissolve into the chemical solution. To give an idea of this process, see the following video:
Post a Comment
Read more

Viscose Fiber Production Process

Viscose fiber is a base material for textile industry. The first production of this kind product is in Indian than spread over the Europe and United States also in South Asia Country like in Indonesia. Viscose fiber is produced to anticipate the shortage of natural yarn for raw material to produce yarn in textile industries, beside synthetic yarn as replace natural cotton to produce fabric. This one is a simple drawing of viscose fiber production process . Viscose fiber is used to substitute the using of cotton as raw material for textile industry. Beside of cotton availability will not enough to supply market demand in the future, also cotton just available on harvesting season. If people just depend on cotton to produce textile then people will shortage of raw material to produce textile. Using viscose fiber to fulfill of textile industry will not any shortage raw material, beside the price is lower than cotton, viscose fiber also have better quality compare with synthetic fiber fo
6 comments
Read more

Sodium Sulfite and Sodium Hydrosulfite

Sodium Sulfite Sodium sulfite is a compound that is very easily oxidized. For this reason, it is employed in many cases where a gentle reducing agent is desired, e.g. to bleach wool and silk, as an antichlor after the bleaching of yarns, textile and paper, as a preservative for foodstuffs, and to prevent raw sugar solution from colouring upon evaporation. It is very widely used in the preparation of photographic developer to prevent from oxidation from hydroquinone and other agents. It has a small application in the field of medicine as an antiseptic and as an antizymotic for internal use. About 60% of the total merchant market is in the paper Industries. While merchant capacity is about 145,000 t/year, the paper mills have twice capacity to captive use. The demand for boiler feed water treatment is about 15%. It is use to remove oxygen from water and thus help to prevent corrosion and scale formation. These were four major production in 1891, one of which provided 50% percent of the
4 comments
Read more