Interaction of ethyl alcohol vapor with sulfuric acid solutions.

We investigated the uptake of ethyl alcohol (ethanol) vapor by sulfuric acid solutions over the range approximately 40 to approximately 80 wt % H2SO4 and temperatures of 193-273 K. Laboratory studies used a fast flow-tube reactor coupled to an electron-impact ionization mass spectrometer for detection of ethanol and reaction products. The uptake coefficients (gamma) were measured and found to vary from 0.