economic sulfur isolation?

[swiss_hillbilly]

I am in search of naturally occuring sulfer in concentration, or an economical means of isolation/purification. at present i am experimenting with pyrites.

i require cheap purified sulfur for producing my own black powder.

the powder is not to act as an initiator, it is for muzzleloaders and hobby cannons.

[elementcollector1]

If you're experimenting with pyrite, I would recommend reacting the pyrite with a strong acid such as sulfuric or muriatic to generate H2S, and then bubble this gas (warning: This stuff is pretty toxic and smells terrible) into NaOH solution, making sulfur and water. The sulfur should precipitate out as a yellowish-white fluff, and can be filtered off with a coffee filter and dried.

 

Need I say "Don't hurt yourself"? Or "If you do hurt yourself, I'm not liable"?

[John Cuthber]

"bubble this gas (warning: This stuff is pretty toxic and smells terrible) into NaOH solution, making sulfur and water."

No it doesn't.

[elementcollector1]

My mistake, I meant NaOCl, not NaOH. The sodium hypochlorite oxidizes the H2S to sulfur, with salt and water as byproducts.

Unless I'm missing something else?

[John Cuthber]

Hypochlorites are rather alkaline; any excess alkali is likely to dissolve sulphur.

 

The classic solution to the problem is to burn part of the pyrites to give SO2 and use that as the oxidant

2 H2S + SO2 --> 3S + 2 H2O