Question

Pratyush took sulphur powder with a spatula and heated it. He collected the gas evolved by inverting a test tube over it as shown in figure below:

a) Write a balanced chemical equation for the reaction taking place.
b) What will be the action of the gas on moist blue litmus paper?

Answer 1

a) Sulphur reacts with oxygen to form sulphur dioxide gas. The reaction occurs as follows:

$\text{S (s)}+{\text{O}}_2\text{(g)}\to {\text{SO}}_2\text{(g)}$

b) The colour of moist blue litmus paper will turn red because sulphur is a non-metal and the oxides of non-metal are acidic in nature.