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Onorato Campopiano

Is it possible to prepare a solution of hydrogen sulfate in a lab? What is the procedure to do so?

Bill Hawkins  Follow

Do you want to prepare a hydrogensulfate salt solution? If yes, then lets take an example of sodium hydrogensufate or sodium bisulfate.

One production method involves mixing stoichiometric quantities of sodium hydroxide and sulfuric acid which react to form sodium bisulfate and water.

$$\ce{NaOH + H2SO4 → NaHSO4 + H2O}$$

But as mentioned by @airhuff and @aventurin, the solution would contain some amount of sulfate ions in the solution which are in equilibrium.

Another process is some sodium salt and sulfuric acid to form corresponding mineral acids and sodium bisulfate.

$$\ce{NaCN + H2SO4 → NaHSO4 + HCN}$$

$$\ce{NaNO3 + H2SO4 → NaHSO4 + HNO3}$$

$$\ce{NaClO4 + H2SO4 → NaHSO4 + HClO4}$$

The advantage of this process is that the acids produced have a lower boiling point than the reactants and are separated from the reaction mixture by distillation.

However I would not recommend using cyanide or perchlorate as sodium cyanide is a potent poison and perchlorate is strong oxidiser. Do not attempt these reaction if you are not an experienced chemist.

However the best process is to mix sodium pyrosulfate and water.(chemiday 1)

$$\ce{Na2S2O7 + H2O → 2NaHSO4}$$

or sodium sulfate and sulfuric acid (chemiday 2)

$$\ce{Na2SO4 + H2SO4 → 2NaHSO4}$$

The advantage of this process is that there is only one product and no by-products. There are tons of other reactions found in chemiday but there are numerous byproducts that has to be removed manually.

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David Currey  Follow

You can prepare such a solution by dissolving a soluble hydrogen sulfate such as sodium hydrogen sulfate in water.

However, since the hydrogen sulfate anion is acidic, there will always be some amount of sulfate ions in the sulution. You can calculate the proportion from its dissociation constant.

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