JRistau81 - 31-7-2006 at 20:31
Well, I was at Sears today looking for KMnO4 and did not have any luck. However, I found "Kenmore Distiller Cleaner" Which listed only one ingredient,
Sulfamic acid (H3NO3S). Now I went ahead and bought it, but unfortunately, after a ton of searching (searched MSDS database for about 400 pages and
gave up. There were like 8900 hits... I also googled and searched here.) Anyone have any experience with this stuff? How should I check for purity?
On a side note, It was a very successful chem. finding day. I found my KMnO4 at Menards, as well as 99% CuSO4.5H20 and NaOH.
DeAdFX - 31-7-2006 at 20:44
If I remember correctly if sulfamic acid is mixed with nitrous acid it produces N2 and if mixed with nitric acid it produces N2O.
JRistau81 - 31-7-2006 at 21:04
I don't doubt that it is Sulfamic acid. I just dont know if there are other additives as with so many other chemicals.
JRistau81 - 31-7-2006 at 21:26
Oh I just Realized I forgot to mention that it is a really really light turquoise-ish powder.
not_important - 31-7-2006 at 23:59
All the sulfamic acid I've seen was white, but a faint colour could be subjective.
Almost every sulfamate is soluble, including barium and lead. So a quick test would be to dissolve a bit in distilled water, and add a few drops of
barium chloride or lead or barium nitrate; the solution should remain clear.
Put a bit into a dry test tube, heat it slowing as you get near 200 C. Sulfamic acid melts at 205 C. Above that it decomposes, forming water, sulfer
oxides, nitrogen, and ammonia, so if you heat it fairly strongly it all should disappear; anything more than a mere trace suggestions other stuff, as
would noticable formation of char.
Boiling with water converts it to ammonium hydrogen sulfate, which can loose some ammonia leaving sulfuric acid. The resulting solution could be
tested for anything other than NH4HSO4 and H2SO4.
As it is used for cleaning water distillatuion rigs because it forms soluble salts with the alkaline earths, about the only other thing that would be
useful is a bit of a wetting agent.
[Edited on 1-8-2006 by not_important]
Vitus_Verdegast - 1-8-2006 at 06:45
Sulfamic acid is frequently used as a descaler for coffee apparati. For this purpose it is sometimes mixed with citric acid, but in this case (at
least where I live) it has to be stated on the package.
BTW sulfamic acid is a very interesting reagens, for example to make benzonitriles from benzamides.