In my last post I mentioned how I sometimes break off chunks of my sulfur specimen to use in experiments. So this time I am going to do just that. While I have done this experiment before, I thought it would be neat to try it again and record it this time. To start, I simply chiseled off a few pieces of elemental sulfur and ground them into a fine powder. After placing this powder on a piece of wood, all I had to do was ignite it. Due to its low melting point, the sulfur actually melts upon contact with a lit match and burns quite steadily. While it may seem in the video below that there is no flame, it is merely too dim to see during the day. Luckily, you don't get to smell the horrible stench of rotten eggs that is produced.
What happened was that the heated sulfur bonded with the surrounding oxygen to produce sulfur dioxide (SO2) and sulfur trioxide (SO3). Both of these products are poisonous and here is the interesting reason why. These gases bond with water molecules in the air, or on the surface of your body, to form both sulfurous acid (H2SO3) and sulfuric acid (H2SO4) on the spot! While this reaction isn't extremely dangerous, it should obviously be performed outdoors or in a fume hood. In my opinion, sulfur is a fascinating element with many unique aspects.
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| As you can see, sulfur burns somewhat strangely. |
If you would like to learn a bit more about sulfur...
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