Sodium Sulphate - Na2SO4
What is Sodium Sulphate?
Sodium sulphate (Na2SO4) is the sodium salt of sulfuric acid.
Anhydrous sulfate is a white crystalline solid also known as the mineral thenardite, while the decahydrate Na2SO4.10H2O has been known as Glauber’s salt or mirabilis.
Na2SO4.7H2O is transformed to mirabilite when it is cooled. Mirabilite is the natural mineral form of the decahydrate. About two-thirds of the world’s production of sodium sulfate is obtained from mirabilite. It is also produced from by-products of chemical processes such as hydrochloric acid production.
Meaning of Anhydrous
Anhydrous literally means “no water.” In chemistry, substances without water are labeled anhydrous. The term is most often applied to crystalline substances after the water of crystallization is removed.
The name and function of salt compounds change with the presence or absence of water in their crystalline structures. For example, sodium sulfate, NaSO4, is called anhydrous sodium sulfate when free of water, and is used as a drying material. That same compound in its decahydrate iteration is called “Glauber’s salt,” and is used to make glass. Without water bonded to its molecules, salt will usually absorb moisture it comes in contact with, hence its use as a dehydrating substance.
Preparations of Sodium Sulphate
In 1625, Johann Rudolf Glauber discovered the sodium sulfate from Austrian spring water, there so the hydrate form is known as Glauber’s salt. Due to its medicinal properties, he named it sal mirabilis (miraculous salt).
One third of the world’s sodium sulfate is produced as by-product of other processes in chemical industry. It is produces by the reaction of sodium chloride and sulphuric acid.
2 NaCl + H2SO4 → 2 HCl + Na2SO4
The crystals were used as a general-purpose laxative, until the 1900s. By reaction with potassium carbonate or potash, Glauber’s salt was used as a raw material for the industrial production of soda ash in the 18th century. In the nineteenth century, the demand for soda ash was increased, so the large scale Leblanc process which produced synthetic sodium sulfate became the principal method of soda ash production.
At dietary levels, excretion is mainly in the urine. Sulfates are found in all body cells, with the highest concentrations in connective tissues, bone, and cartilage. Sulfates play a role in several important metabolic pathways, including those involved in detoxification processes.
There are two types of sodium sulfate natural and by product, also known as synthetic.
• Natural sodium sulfate is produced from naturally occurring brines and crystalline deposits found in California and Texas.
• It is also found as a constituent of saline lakes, such as the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Synthetic sodium sulfate is recovered as a by product of various manufacturing processes.
• Both types of sodium sulfate have several important and useful applications in various consumer products.
• In a survey of the top 50 basic organic and inorganic chemicals made in the United States, sodium sulfate ranked 47th in terms of quantity produced.
In the industry
Resources of Sodium Sulphate
• Sodium is the sixth most abundant element in the Earth’s crust. Sodium sulfate-bearing mineral deposits are geologically young, mainly of post-glacial age.
• Sodium sulfate is widespread in occurrence and is a common component of seawater and many saline or alkaline lakes.
• Economic reserves of natural sodium sulfate are estimated at 3.3 billion tons worldwide.
• With world production of natural sodium sulfate averaging about 2.6 million tons per year, supplies are sufficient to meet anticipated demand for several centuries.
• The quantity of synthetic sodium sulfate is dependent on the longevity of the manufacturing firms recovering by product sulfate.
• Surface depressions or lakes that have no outlets and are fed by spring waters flowing over volcanic rocks containing sulphide minerals often yield soluble sulphide salts that are oxidized by contact with the air to produce sulfates.
Uses of Sodium Sulphate
• Sodium sulfate is used to dry organic liquids.
• As a filler in powdered home laundry detergents.
• As a fining agent which removes small air bubbles from molten glass.
• Glauber’s salt, the decahydrate was used as a laxative which removes certain drugs such as acetaminophen from the body.
• For defrosting windows, in carpet fresheners, starch manufacture, as an additive to cattle feed.
• In the manufacture of detergents and in the Kraft process of paper pulping.
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