Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Sulfur from Iron Sulfide

symboom - 27-9-2011 at 15:48

i have a problem with getting the sulfur.
ive used hydrogen peroxide and it decomposed to oxygen the iron sulfide just plain stinks of H2S gas in moist air it seems to very slowly give of this gas.

or just add bleach to it?
im thinking + hcl + peroxide?
vinagar and peroxide?
what would work best

AndersHoveland - 27-9-2011 at 16:01

I do not see any easy way to get sulfur from iron sulfide. My best advice would be to roast the ore, getting SO2, then to burn the SO2 with a limited quantity of a flammable gas- not a very convenient way.

[Edited on 28-9-2011 by AndersHoveland]

peach - 27-9-2011 at 16:25

Keep it, you can use the sulphide to generate hydrogen sulphide on demand by dripping hydrochloric on to it, and that's a fairly handy gas; albeit a deadly one (more so than the hydrogen cyanide used in gas chambers).

Aluminium sulphide also honks without doing anything to it, as it'll happily release the gas on contact with water (the moisture in the air) and it only requires a tiny bit of it to be getting round seals for the place to stink of sewers, swamps and rotting.

If you have it as a powder, all the better, since big chunks only reduce it's usefulness.

I'd buy the sulphur it's self, myself, since making finely divided iron sulphide is more of a pain in the ass than paying out for some sulphur and it's readily available in the UK; although if all science was done for cost reasons and ease, it wouldn't be very interesting eh? ;P
Quote:
L-Cysteine potentiates 100-fold the hydrogen peroxide-induced killing of a growing culture of Escherichia coli K-12 (Berglin et al., J. Bacteriol. 152:81-88). In the present study it is shown that hydrogen sulfide is formed from L-cysteine and that sodium sulfide could substitute for L-cysteine in the potentiation of hydrogen peroxide-induced killing of E. coli K-12. Addition of an amino acid, L-leucine, L-valine, or L-alanine, to an L-cysteine-containing medium with a growing culture of E. coli K-12 inhibited hydrogen sulfide formation and the potentiation of hydrogen peroxide-induced killing. These amino acids did not inhibit hydrogen sulfide formation from L-cysteine by a cell extract, and they did not inhibit the potentiation by sulfide of hydrogen peroxide-induced killing. This indicated that the amino acids protected the culture from L-cysteine-potentiated, hydrogen peroxide-induced killing by inhibiting the transport of L-cysteine into the cell. The potentiation by sodium sulfide of hydrogen peroxide-induced killing was abolished by the metal ion chelator 2,2'-bipyridyl. This indicated that metal ions, in addition to sulfide, were involved in the killing. Toxic effects of hydrogen peroxide are often presumed to be mediated by hydroxyl radicals formed in iron-catalyzed reactions. It was demonstrated that iron sulfide was more efficient than ferrous iron in catalyzing the formation of hydroxyl radicals from hydrogen peroxide. It was suggested that hydrogen sulfide formed in polymicrobial infections may play an important role in the host defense by potentiating the antimicrobial effect of hydrogen peroxide produced by phagocytic cells.


- Potentiation by sulfide of hydrogen peroxide-induced killing of Escherichia coli.
Quote:
Industrial sources

The majority of L-Cysteine was once obtained industrially by hydrolysis of human hair, but in recent years 80% is produced from duck feathers.


- Cysteine article, Wikipedia

There was also some discussion of this in the following SM thread, relating to FeS2.

You might also find this interesting, the Claus process.
Quote:
The Claus process is the most significant gas desulfurizing process, recovering elemental sulfur from gaseous hydrogen sulfide. First patented in 1883 by the scientist Carl Friedrich Claus, the Claus process has become the industry standard.

Hydrogen sulfide produced, for example, in the hydro-desulfurization of refinery naphthas and other petroleum oils, is converted to sulfur in Claus plants. The overall main reaction equation is:

2 H2S + O2 → S2 + 2 H2O

In fact, the vast majority of the 64,000,000 metric tons of sulfur produced worldwide in 2005 was byproduct sulfur from refineries and other hydrocarbon processing plants.


[Edited on 28-9-2011 by peach]

Chemistry Alchemist - 28-9-2011 at 03:26

Quote: Originally posted by symboom  
i have a problem with getting the sulfur.
ive used hydrogen peroxide and it decomposed to oxygen the iron sulfide just plain stinks of H2S gas in moist air it seems to very slowly give of this gas.

or just add bleach to it?
im thinking + hcl + peroxide?
vinagar and peroxide?
what would work best



Look in teh Golden Book of Chemistry, it says, dissolve FeS into some HCl in a test tube with a stopper with a glass pipet at the end for the H2S gas to come out, ignight the gas and then hold some cold glass or something at the flame, Sulfur will be deposited onto the surface.


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rstar - 28-9-2011 at 04:15

You should try to pass the H2S gas into another Container which contains Chlorine gas.
H2S + Cl2 = S + 2HCl

blogfast25 - 28-9-2011 at 08:47

Quote: Originally posted by rstar  
You should try to pass the H2S gas into another Container which contains Chlorine gas.
H2S + Cl2 = S + 2HCl


Or lead H2S into bleach (hypochlorite): sulphur forms immediately by oxidation of sulphide to sulphur...

symboom - 28-9-2011 at 11:06

thank you for the suggestions.
The iron sulfide is in a strip it came from a lithium battery.
I don't like to waste things and that iron sulfide smells really bad my trash would stink, i would feel sorry for the trash service.

[Edited on 28-9-2011 by symboom]

barley81 - 28-9-2011 at 12:40

You may find this Energizer document about their lithium batteries interesting. (I think you used an Energizer lithium battery)

http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/lithiuml91l92_appman.pdf
The cathode in these batteries is made of iron disulfide, probably mixed with filler.

symboom - 28-9-2011 at 16:08

that helps aluminum substrate hmm that means if i react it with hcl it will make hydrogen along with the H2S gas. this seems to be the easyist way to get lithium just cut it open with a pipe cutter i know when it cut through cause it starts to smell (H2S smell) ive tried to get sulfur by putting it in hydrogen peroxide no use it seems to only decompose the peroxide cutting the battery under mineral oil seems to be the best way to prevent the lithium from tarnishing.