The Perchloric Method for the Determination of Sulfur in Rubber

Abstract

Abstract The problem of the determination of sulfur in rubber has been dealt with extensively in the literature, and it seems as if discussions and descriptions of new technic are nowhere nearly ended yet. The determination is so essential, and its rapid and precise execution is of such importance in industrial technic, that efforts in this direction should not be regarded as wasted. In 1926 and in 1927 Le Caoutchouc et La Gutta-Percha contained two articles in which the present author discussed the conditions of the determination of sulfur in rubber and then proposed the use of a new oxidizing mixture, not mentioned previous to that time, which involved the destruction of organic substances by perchloric acid. This method consisted simply in the attack on a 1-gram sample of rubber by 10 cc. of nitric acid (d. 1.39) and 5 cc. of perchloric acid (d. 1.61). Upon heating, attack by the nitric acid takes place, and this is followed by evaporation of the excess nitric acid, then at a little higher temperature there is an attack by the perchloric acid, which oxidizes the rest of the organic substance completely. This publication was concerned much more, in the determination of sulfur by the perchloric method, with the general idea of the destruction of organic substances than it was with the precise details of carrying it out. The technic had been studied somewhat superficially, as is shown by the text of the article itself.