Oh my dear friend Half-a-Pint!
Here are some comments, in order of time:
I can see two ways of performing this prep. One, in gas phase, within a glass tube, the mixed gases passed through moistened silica kitty litter beads, the liquid products SOCl2 and H2O continuously drained by gravity into a glass receptacle.
SOCl2 is decomposed by H2O! That's precisely the reason that i suggested H2SO4 for; obviously, the rxn is an equilibrium, and if one is to expect a decent yield, he must remove that water somehow. It must bee removed. Period. Maybee, bubbling in HCl, as you suggest, will help.
Not knowing whether heat would be required, the rxn would first be tried at room temperature, though I should expect heating to help
My textbook says that SOCl2 boils at 78 C (ChemFinder says 76 C) and decomposes just above this temp., so heating above 79 C is definitely not needed.
The second way would be as implied here, by bubbling SO2 through muriatic (31%) acid, though I again would probably enlist the aid of an HCl generator to continuously refortify the acid, since "concentrated" acid is called for, and the reaction produces H2O as a diluent.
I agree thoroughly.
I don't expect you could make thionyl chloride, SOCl2, in such an oxidizing environment as sulfuric acid, though I might bee wrong
Sulfur has a 4+ charge in SOCl2, just like in SO2, and i senceriously doubt H2SO4 will ox. it to S(VI) (sulfuryl chloride)
. Let's not introduce the complication of sulfuric acid, which reacts, by the way, with both component gases!
Now this needs to bee found out explicitly! What are the rxns, i'm very interested too - if you know, please, put them down here.
Beecause as i was typing all this into my beloved machine, the answer finally conglomerated itself inside of my head and beecame present in front of my eyes in a cloud of fire (ever read W. Blake? - "...hi my name's W. Blake, ever read my poetry?"
.)
The most proper way of performing this rxn, i think would bee to
a) mix SO2 w/HCL thoroughly.
b) bubble the gas mixtr (to succeed w/this, you'll need a good gas disperser unit - some glasswool perversion will probably do, just make the bubbles as fine as possible) through conc. H2SO4 heated to 79 deg C. The resultant SOCl2 will bee dist'd off and collected continuously.
If the fact that some SOCl2 is formed in muriatic acid is true, this hasn't a slightest chance at not working! Maybee even in good yields i might say.
Well, good luck to you w/this one! Considering that clandestine research procedures very often look promising but very seldom do succeed, indeeed!.. Good luck! - bee sure to write up what will have happened!
Antoncho