Chemical Forums
Specialty Chemistry Forums => Citizen Chemist => Topic started by: P-man on November 04, 2006, 04:32:15 PM
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Does anyone know what the reaction is when sulphuric acid reacts with hydrocarbons (wood especially)? Because I had some sulphuric acid leak in my drawer and the wood inflated and puffed up and made a *Ignore me, I am impatient*.
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I depends on the concentration of the acid.
Hyghly concentrated acid dehydrates the wood and may even char it. This reaction is quite fast (seconds/minutes).
At lower concentration, there is a slow reaction (days), but the wood is partially hydrolyzed, and the cellulose breaks down in the individual sugar molecules. This results in wood, loosing its strong structure. It becomes weak and can easily be broken. It also absorbs water, which is in the acid, but because it looses its structure, it can swell.
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Does anyone know what the reaction is when sulphuric acid reacts with hydrocarbons (wood especially)? Because I had some sulphuric acid leak in my drawer and the wood inflated and puffed up and made a *Ignore me, I am impatient*.
Wood isn't a hydrocarbon (natural gas, lighter fluid, gasoline, benzene, wax, etc. are hydrocarbons), it's a carbohydrate.
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Hyghly concentrated acid dehydrates the wood and may even char it. This reaction is quite fast (seconds/minutes).
And exothermic. I've put conc. sulfuric acid on sugar, and wound up with a lot of heat and a nice black solid (presumeably carbon).
The same thing happened when I spilt it on a roll of paper towels. It actually ate all the way through the roll and onto my waiting baking soda. I let it finish going through the paper towel roll only because it had already gotten pretty far through.
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OK, I see how it works now. Is there any way I could fix my puffed up drawer? You said the wood gets dehydrated, can I pour some water on it or something?
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Once the wood is destroyed in this way, it cannot be recovered again. The only way to repair it, is taking the affected wood way (drilling a hole generously around it) and filling it with some hardening paste. The hydrolysed wood cannot be converted to wood again.
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Shucks. Guess I'll have to buy a new drawer. :-\