What do you think of when you hear the word Sulfur?

Many people may think of ‘hot springs’ or ‘smelly things’, but in fact, we see quite a few other things in our daily lives.

This article will explain the properties and characteristics of Sulfur and how it is used in practice!

Properties and characteristics of Sulfur

Sulfur is an element found in volcanic eruptions.

For example, volcanic gases and hot spring water. Pungent odors, particularly in hot spring areas, are due to hydrogen sulfide, a compound of Sulfur and hydrogen.

Sulfur may also be involved in the smell of onions and garlic. In the past, Sulfur collected in volcanoes was used as a resource, but nowadays Sulfur is commonly extracted during oil refining, as it is known that Sulfur is a waste product of the oil refining process.

How Sulfur is used in society

Sulfur is used as an ingredient in ‘fertilizers’, ‘matchsticks’ and to ‘increase the elasticity of rubber’.

Let’s look at each of them.

Sulfur is useful for “fertilizer”

Sulfur as a fertilizer is mainly used when growing plants such as blueberries, azaleas and gentians. When Sulfur is sown into the soil, it lowers the pH and makes the soil more acidic.

By nature, acid soils are the enemy of plants, but some plants grow well in acid soils, as I have just described.

Sulphur is useful for “matchstick”

It is actually the red part at the end of the matchstick that is where Sulfur is used. It is also used as a raw material for fireworks and smoke bombs.

Sulfur is useful for “increasing the elasticity of the rubber”

In fact, rubber has the property of staying stretched when it is stretched.

But rubber bands and rubber gloves return to their original shape, don’t they? Actually, by adding Sulfur to raw rubber, the Sulfur makes the rubber molecules stick together and return to their original shape.

History of Sulfur

Chemical symbol: S
English Name: Sulfur

There are two theories on the origin of the word sulfur: one is the Latin word ‘sulpur’ meaning sulfur and the other is the Sanskrit word ‘sulvere’ meaning ‘source of fire’.

As for the discovery, it is said to date from BC.

Summary

In this article, we have explained ‘Sulfur’.

The key points of this article are as follows.

• Sulfur is found in volcanic gases and hot spring water and has a pungent odor when it becomes hydrogen sulfide.
• Sulfur was originally collected from volcanoes, but is now taken from the waste products of oil refining.
• Used for ‘fertilizers’, ‘matchsticks’, ‘rubber’, etc.

The other elements studied in high school are summarized in the following articles.

Please see also the following pages for a further understanding!