What is aluminum sulfite?

Aluminum sulfite is a chemical compound represented by the molecular formula Al2(SO3)3. In this formula, Al stands for aluminum, S stands for sulfur and O stands for oxygen.

Aluminum sulfite has a molar mass of 294.15 grams per mole. When the compound is mixed with water, it forms aluminum hydroxide and sulfur dioxide, represented by the chemical formulas Al(OH)3 and SO2. This process is called hydrolysis. The numbers in the chemical formula indicate the number of atoms in the compound, totalling two aluminum atoms, three sulfur atoms and nine oxygen atoms. In chemistry, the suffixes -ite and -ate indicate the presence of oxygen atoms.