A major industrial process used for the manufacture of sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid is widely used with large quantities involved in the making of rayon, the refining of petroleum, and the manufacture of fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, dyes, and paints. The process involves the exothermic reaction of combining sulphur dioxide and oxygen to produce sodium trioxide, SO3. The sulphur is produced by roasting ores such as iron pyrites, FeS2. Excess oxygen is used and the process is controlled at as low a temperature as possible. Platinum catalysts were once used. However, due to their susceptibility to poisoning, especially by arsenious oxide, As4O6, finely divided vanadium and vanadium pentoxide catalysts are preferred since these are less susceptible to poisoning although less efficient. The sulphur trioxide is not absorbed in water due to an unmanageable mist of sulphuric acid droplets that is produced, but instead the cooled gases are passed up a tower down which 98 per cent sulphuric acid flows. The water in this acid forms the acid H2+SO3=H2SO4. The adsorption can be carried further to produce fuming sulphuric acid or oleum:
The process was invented in 1831 in the UK by P. Phillips Jr. and is named after the German kontaktverfahren meaning ‘catalytic process’. It was once in competition with the lead chamber process.