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Lee Ballentine

If water is added to sulphur dioxide, what will happen?

Badi DukviL  Follow

Insofar as CO2 can be reduced to CO and SO2 can be oxidized to SO3, one would have to look at the energy balance of such a reaction.

But, H2SO4 has long been an important industrial chemical and ways to make it must involve generation of SO3 yet no industrial process uses the reaction you enquire about, I think it is a safe bet that the reaction in question is not a favourable one.

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Carolyn Barnett  Follow

Sulfur dioxide is soluble in water, the reaction is

SO2 (g) + H2O (l) ——-H2SO3(aq)

it forms sulfurous acid

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Customers Emailing  Follow

SO2 reduces ferric salts into ferrous salt changing the colour from yellow to light green.

SO2 + 2H2O → H2SO4 + 2 [H]

Fe2 (SO4)3 + 2 [H] → 2FeSO4 + H2SO4


Fe2 (SO4)3 + SO2 + 2H2O → 2FeSO4 + 2H2SO4

Fe2 (SO4)3 → (yellow)

FeSO4 → (light green)

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Chris Conrad  Follow

Calcium hydroxide [Ca(OH)2] is sparingly soluble in water producing a dilute alkaline solution known as Lime water. When CO2 is passed, it reacts with lime water which leads to the formation of white precipitate of Calcium carbonate [CaCO3] which turns solution milky.

Here's how reaction goes :

[Ca(OH)2] (aq) + CO2 (g) →

CaCO3 (s) + H2O (l)

This happens when carbon dioxide is added for short duration. If it's added for a long time the precipitate starts dissolving resulting in formation of a colourless solution of Sodium hydrogencarbonate [Ca(HCO3)2]

CaCO3 (s) + CO2 (g) + H2O (l)→

[Ca(HCO3)2] (aq)

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Alex Zorach  Follow

In SO2, the sulfur is in the +4 oxidation state. The highest possible oxidation state for sulfur is +6. In a situation in which the sulfur in SO2 is oxidized to the +6 oxidation state, the sulfur will have acted as a reducing agent for the substance with which it reacted. Conversely, if the sulfur is reduced to the 0 or +2 oxidation state, it will have acted as the oxidizing agent with respect to the substance that caused the reduction of the sulfur.

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Asghar Hosseini  Follow

It forms a weak acid called sulfurous acid, [math]H_2SO_3[/math]. (This is not to be confused with the strong acid, sulfuric acid, [math]H_2SO_4[/math]). I’m not recommending this, but I’ve put my finger in a sulfurous acid solution, and found no ill effects, except that my IQ dropped by 15 points.

Do NOT put your finger in a strong sulfuric acid solution.

Sulfurous acid, can easily break back down into sulfur dioxide, [math]SO_2[/math], and water, which is why sulfurous acid smells.

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Marwan Anouar  Follow

When water is added to sulphur dioxide sulphurous acid is formed.

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Leliz Lampe  Follow

As long as there’s water present, the two gases react with it to produce a mixture of sulphuric acid and hydrogen chloride gas thus:

Cl2 + SO2 + 2H2O → H2SO4 + HCl

If however the compounds are reacted in anhydrous conditions in the presence of a catalyst such as activated carbon or camphor, it will produce sulphuryl chloride[1]

SO2 + Cl2 → SO2Cl2

The above is moisture sensitive and hydrolyses to the same products as in the first reaction.

Footnotes

[1] Sulfuryl chloride - Wikipedia

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Dallas Hall  Follow

Silly question. If you actually wanted to know you could Google “sulfur dioxide” and find that it is a gas with the formula SO2. But instead you are trying to up your Quora Partners score which I will never help you do in the future. The worst idea that Quora has ever had was the partner program. It encourages people to ask stupid questions in the hopes of making a few bucks. You are now blocked.

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Michael J. McFadden  Follow

Sulphur dioxide is a temporary bleaching agent, unlike Chlorine, which is a permanent bleaching agent! This is because the mechanism for bleaching is different:

  • SO2-Reduction => TEMPORARY
  • Cl2-Oxidation => PERMANENT

Sulphur dioxide removes oxygen from the coloured substance and makes it colourless. But atmospheric oxygen slowly takes place of the removed oxygen and because of which the material regains the colour.

Upvote if you liked the answer! Follow me for more stuff! :)

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Clark Powell  Follow

It combines with water to form a weak acid sulfurous acid, it’s salts are called sulfites.

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