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sulfurous acid

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sulfurous acid

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Also known as S(O)(OH)2, sulphurous acid, H2SO3, sulfuric(IV) acid

chemical compound

AI overview

Sulfurous acid is a weak acid formed when sulfur dioxide gas dissolves in water, and it's commonly used as a preservative and bleaching agent in food and industrial processes. It matters because it plays an important role in food safety and manufacturing, though it can also be a respiratory irritant and environmental concern when released into the atmosphere.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Chemical data

Formula
H2O3S
Molecular weight
82.08 g/mol
IUPAC name
sulfurous acid
SMILES
OS(=O)O
InChIKey
LSNNMFCWUKXFEE-UHFFFAOYSA-N
XLogP
-0.5
Polar surface area
76.7 Ų
H-bond donors
2
H-bond acceptors
4
Formal charge
0

via PubChem

~2 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Sulfurous acid (United Kingdom spelling: sulphurous acid) is the chemical compound with the formula H2SO3.

Raman spectra of solutions of sulfur dioxide in water show only signals due to the SO2 molecule and the bisulfite ion, HSO−3. The intensities of the signals are consistent with the following equilibrium:

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “sulfurous acid” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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