{"id":91121,"date":"2026-03-05T13:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T07:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=91121"},"modified":"2026-03-05T15:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T09:57:11","slug":"oleum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/oleum\/","title":{"rendered":"Oleum"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Oleum Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A major leak of hazardous oleum gas at a chemical unit in Maharashtra&#8217;s Palghar district recently led to the evacuation of over 2,600 people.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Oleum<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oleum is a powerful <\/span><b>chemical solution<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> composed of <\/span><b>sulfur trioxide (SO\u2083) dissolved in sulfuric acid (H\u2082SO\u2084).<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though <\/span><b>oleum and sulfuric acid are closely related,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> they <\/span><b>differ significantly in composition and reactivity.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Sulfuric acid<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (H\u2082SO\u2084) is a<\/span><b> powerful acid<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in its own right, but <\/span><b>oleum <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is <\/span><b>even more reactive due to the additional dissolved SO\u2083.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Contact Process<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is the <\/span><b>primary industrial method for producing sulfuric acid, and <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">by extension, <\/span><b>oleum<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oleum is available in different concentrations, with the<\/span><b> SO\u2083 content varying to suit industrial needs.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s often <\/span><b>referred to as \u201cfuming sulfuric acid\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> due to its <\/span><b>tendency to release<\/b> <b>SO\u2083 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><b>fumes upon exposure to air.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In terms of appearance, oleum ranges from <\/span><b>colorless to pale yellow<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, with an <\/span><b>oily consistency.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Oleum <\/b><b>Applications<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oleum&#8217;s <\/span><b>high reactivity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> makes it a <\/span><b>vital component for producing highly concentrated sulfuric acid<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and in <\/span><b>synthesizing<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> crucial chemicals like <\/span><b>explosives, dyes, and pharmaceuticals.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oleum\u2019s <\/span><b>high viscosity contributes to its \u201coily\u201d appearance<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and influences its handling requirements in industrial applications.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is also an<\/span><b> efficient dehydrating agent <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and can <\/span><b>strip water from organic compounds, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">which is essential in certain industrial reactions.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Is Oleum Dangerous?<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>highly corrosive<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, meaning it can <\/span><b>burn and damage skin, eyes,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and other materials very quickly.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because it <\/span><b>releases toxic fumes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, it can also be<\/span><b> harmful if inhaled.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/maharashtra\/toxic-gas-leaks-from-palghar-chemical-unit-2600-evacuated-3-persons-complain-of-eye-irritation\/article70696591.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oleum is a powerful chemical solution composed of sulfur trioxide (SO\u2083) dissolved in sulfuric acid (H\u2082SO\u2084). Read more about Oleum, Properties, Applications, Danger, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":91079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5859,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-91121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-oleum","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91121"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91129,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91121\/revisions\/91129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}