will aluminium sulphate react with hydrochloric acid

Question

I want to convert aluminium sulpahte to aluminium chloride. A double displacement with barium chloride works, however I wanted to know if the conversion can be obtained by reacting with hydrochloric acid.

Answer 1

The double displacement with barium chloride works because barium sulfate is insoluble and can be removed from the system before you evaporate water to yield aluminum chloride as a solid. Since aluminum chloride is soluble in water, water has to be evaporated to isolate it as a product.

The problem with doing this reaction with hydrochloric acid is that you'll end up with a system with both aqueous aluminum ions and aqueous mix of acids. As nothing is going to precipitate here, you won't be able to isolate your target product. 

Also, for the practical purposes, aluminum chloride is extremely hygroscopic, and will hydrolyze if you actually try to synthesize it this way. Soluble metal halides that are prone to hydrolysis are made by burning the metal sample in the corresponding halogen.

Answer 2

My mistake. Sort of misread the question.