• Question: What are the uses of Sulphuric acid?

    Asked by meg123 to Amy, Karen, Sarah, Vijay, Will on 19 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Will Reynolds

      Will Reynolds answered on 19 Jun 2012:

      Sulfuric acid (now spelt with an F because we lost the spelling battle with america!) has lots of uses. It is used in car batteries to store electricity, it can do lots of interesting chemical reactions: nitration (see TNT answer), it is a source of SO3 in organic molecules and can be used to make hydrogen when mixed with a metal. It is used in the production of pharmaceuticals, dyes, ink, washing powder, insecticides, synthetic fabrics and of course TNT! It is also makes up most of the atmosphere … on Venus, it rains sulfuric acid! Ouch.

    • Photo: Karen Reed

      Karen Reed answered on 19 Jun 2012:

      Will’s you’re man on this one – he’s got it expertly covered from the chemists point of view

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