Would this work to make Sulfuric Acid?

[Declan]

Since sulfuric acid is getting harder to get around where I live, yet phosphoric acid (H3PO4) is still 7 bucks a gallon at Home Depot, I thought of this (MgSO4 is Epsom Salts, at the supermarket):

H3PO4+MgSO4-->H2SO4+Mg3(PO4)2

Of course not balanced. SO4 -2 is soluble with Mg 2+, so it would dissolve. PO4 2- is insoluble with Mg, so it could be filtered out maybe?

Also, H3PO4, already not a very strong acid, basically never reaches the conjugate base PO4 3-. Therefore, I think it would be more like:

H3PO4+MgSO4-->H2SO4+Mg3(PO4)2+MgHPO4+Mg(H2PO4)2

I'm probably missing something humongous here that'll make it all not work, but if it does, I found a good source for Sulfuric, at least for me, and possibly for more people when it becomes controlled in urban areas in the far future.

[c.Tech]

I'm still learning chemistry and am not the best yet but here are some other methods which can be used.

Their fairly simple and have been around for a long time.

SO2 + H2O2 --> H2SO4

SO2 + NO2 --> SO3 + NO
2NO + O2 --> NO2
SO3 + H2O --> H2SO4

[Skean Dhu]

Car batteries, and acid refills for them will work if you take the time to boil off the water(they're ~35% H2SO4)

While not the most economical path to sulfuric acid, they do work and for many people here that is their chosen route

[Declan]

I'm still learning chemistry and am not the best yet but here are some other methods which can be used.

Their fairly simple and have been around for a long time.

SO2 + H2O2 --> H2SO4

SO2 + NO2 --> SO3 + NO
2NO + O2 --> NO2
SO3 + H2O --> H2SO4

Guys, I know that you can get in in batteries, and a number of other ways, but I was asking if this works.

By the way, it's generally:

S+O2-->SO2 burned in the presence of O2
2SO2+O2-->2SO3 oxidized with a vanadium catalyst
SO3+H2O-->H2SO4 usually actually forming H2S2O7, because straight to sulfuric is too exothermic.

[megalomania]

Well, Declan, why don't you tell us? I'll not do any homework I don't really have to, so here is a hint: Using the Arrhenius equation calculate the activation energy needed for the reaction. What you will need to find, and why I don't want to do this for you, is the rate constant for the reaction. I suggest you look for the far more common reactions between sulfuric acid and phosphates and use that rate constant as a guide. Then all you need to do is figure at what temperature the reaction proceeds with any useful speed.

[DONMAN]

MgSO + H2O2 +MgO2 + H2SO4

Try that.

[Universal]

Well now isn't that a strange reaction, no apparent products of it at all. That must be a new magnesium sulfate, I've never seen it before.

Did you mean MgSO4 + H2O2 --> MgO + H2SO4.

I still don't think it is going to work. H2O2 maybe trying to get fid of some O2 but not really the H2, the phosphoric acid way.

If some reaction did occur it would more likely be.

H3PO4 + MgSO4 --> Mg(HSO4)2 + Mg(H2PO4)2

Whether heat effects this or not I don't know. But unlikely.

[c.Tech]

Did you mean MgSO4 + H2O2 --> MgO + H2SO4.

You should know the basic acid/base chemistry before you start giving advice on reactions to try.

Acids react with metal oxides to form water and a salt, MgO + H2SO4 -> MgSO4 + H2O and acids also react with carbonates, metals, hydrogen carbonates, sulfides and sulfites.

BTW, where did one atom of oxygen go from the first half of your reaction? On the first half you have 6 oxygen atoms but on the second half you have just 5.