Sulfur

The largest amount of sulfur is used to make sulfuric acid, the most used industrial chemical.   It is also used in black gunpowder, rubber vulcanization, fungicides, sulphite and other papers, fumigants, dried fruit bleaching, and fertilizers.   Important compounds are the following:

Sulphuric acid, H₂SO₄, is used to synthesize fertilizers and polyamides (silicones), as the electrolyte in lead-acid batteries, to clean iron and steel of rust before plating, to manufacture chemicals, detergents, dyes, pigments, explosives, and drugs.   It is used in petroleum refining to wash impurities out of gasoline and other refinery products, to produce rayon. ^{E'pedia n.p.}

Calcium sulfate, CaSO₄, is a food source for calcium.   It also is used for blackboard chalk, sheetrock or wallboard, plaster, dental molds, surgical casts, paint filler, toothpaste, and metal casts. ^{Free n.p.}

Ammonium sulfate, (NH₄₎₂SO₄, is a fertilizer.

Carbon disulfide, CS₂, is used in the manufacture of rayon, cellophane, and carbon tetrachloride.   It also is used to produce rubber chemicals and pesticides. ^{EPA n.p.}

Sulfur dioxide, SO₂, is used as a reducing agent for bleaching, fumigation, and food preservation, and in purifying petroleum products. ^{O'Leary n.p.}

Hydrogen sulfide, H₂S, is used to produce and in the manufacture of sodium sulfide and thiophenes.   It is used in chemical industries for iron and carbon steel protection against corrosion in processes using salts (e.g. NaCl).

Sulfur is essential to life, with small amounts of it in fats, body fluids, and skeletal minerals.   It is part of the molecules that keep skin, hair, nails, and cartilage firm.   Sources: beef, wheat germ, dried beans and peas, peanuts, clams.   No human deficiency is known to exist. ^{Brody 185}

In plants, sulfur is a structural component of amino acids, proteins, vitamins and enzymes and is essential to produce chlorophyll.   It imparts flavor to many vegetables.   Deficiencies result in light green leaves.   Sulfur is readily lost by leaching from soils and may have to be added to the soil. ^{Morgan n.p.}

Sulfur was known to the ancients, who called it brimstone.   Sulfur occurs native in the vicinity of hot springs and volcanoes.   Some ores containing it are iron pyrites (fool's gold), galena, sphalerite, cinnabar, stibnite, gypsum, Epsom salts (hydrated magnesium sulfate), celestite, and barite.   Sulfur is obtained commercially from wells sunk into salt domes and then applying the Frasch process, which forces hot water into the wells to melt and surface the sulfur.   Sulfur is found with petroleum and natural gas and must be removed from them, since it is considered a contaminant. ^{Lide 4-28}