How would you prepare dilute sulfuric acid from concentrated sulfuric acid for use in an experiment?

Answer 1

Add the acid to water.

Do NOT add water to the acid as it will boil and split acid everywhere.

Please say 100 mL of water in a beaker and slowly add sulphuric acid to it.

To change the molarities of the acid you need to do come calculations.

If you have say 50mL of 5M sulphurtic acid and you want to make it say 1M sulphuric acid.

Then use the eq'n moles = [conc] X vol(mL) / 1000

So

5M x 50mL / 1000 = 1M x vol(mL)/1000

Algebraically rearrange/.

vol(mL) = 5M x 50mL / 1M

NB THe '1000' cancel down.

vol(mL) = 250mL

In this case have 175 mL of water in a beaker, slowly add the 50mL (H2SO4), to avoid spitting. You will then have 225 mL. So then slowly add a further 25 mL of water to make the concentration 1M.

NB 225mL of sol'n will be of the wrong concentration, that is why you add a small final amount of water.

Answer 2

To dilute sulfuric acid, the acid should be added slowly to cold water with constant stirring to limit build-up of heat.

This acid will heat up very quickly, so when you add it to your cold water, you should place your container of water in a larger container filled with ice cold water and ice cubes to help keep the temperature down. If you let the temperature rise as you put it in the container, it will spray out of the container and if it comes in contact with your skin, it will burn you.