<span>The Reaction of Oxygen with Sulfur Dioxide to make Sulfur Trioxide.</span>
<span><span>
Sulfur dioxide</span> is made by reacting sulfur with oxygen.</span>
<span>Sulfur dioxide can be made to react with <span>more </span><span>oxygen
</span>to make sulfur trioxide.
This is another example of oxidation.</span>
<span>The reaction is reversible (shown by the <span>arrow).
The forward reaction (from left to right) is</span> <span>exothermic.</span></span>
<span>This is the balanced chemical equation for the reaction of
sulfur dioxide with oxygen.</span>
sulfur <span>dioxide + oxygen sulfur trioxide.
2SO<span>2(g)</span> + O<span>2(g)</span> 2<span>SO3</span>(g)</span>
<span>
The industrial conditions for the chemical reaction are
1) The Temperature is 450 °C.
2) The Pressure is between 1 and 2 atmospheres.
3) A <span><span>Vanadium(V) oxide</span> </span><span>(<span>V2</span><span><span>O5</span><span>) <span>catalyst is used.</span></span></span></span></span>
<span><span>About 99% of the <span>sulfur dioxide
</span>is converted into sulfur trioxide under these conditions.
The sulfur trioxide is used to make sulfuric acid.</span>
The effect on the <span>rate<span> of the </span>reaction</span> and
the yield which you get from a reversible reaction
depends on the conditions (temperature, pressure and catalyst).
These have been summarized for the Haber Process.<span>1. <span>Increasing the temperature</span> favours the endothermic reaction.</span><span>2. <span>Increasing the pressure</span> favours the smaller volume.</span><span>3. <span>Using a catalyst</span> gives the equilibrium conditions more quickly.</span><span>Hope that helps :)</span></span>
