Sodium carbonate

Sodium carbonate decahydrate (Na₂CO₃·10H₂O), also known as washing soda, is the most common hydrate of sodium carbonate containing 10 molecules of water of crystallization. Soda ash is dissolved in water and crystallized to get washing soda.

${\displaystyle {\ce {Na2CO3 + 10H2O -> Na2CO3.10H2O}}}$

• It is white crystalline solid.
• It is one of the few metal carbonates which are soluble in water.
• It is alkaline with a pH level of 11; it turns red litmus to blue.
• It has detergent properties or cleansing properties, because it can remove dirt and grease from dirty clothes, etc. It attacks dirt and grease to form water soluble products, which are then washed away on rinsing with water.

Sodium carbonate serves as a flux for silica, lowering the melting point of the mixture to something achievable without special materials. This "soda glass" is mildly water-soluble, so some calcium carbonate is added to the melt mixture to make the glass insoluble. Bottle and window glass (soda-lime glass) is made by melting such mixtures of sodium carbonate, calcium carbonate, and silica sand (silicon dioxide (SiO₂)). When these materials are heated, the carbonates release carbon dioxide. In this way, sodium carbonate is a source of sodium oxide. Soda-lime glass has been the most common form of glass for centuries.[16]

Water Hardness in United States

Hard water contains dissolved compounds, usually calcium or magnesium compounds. Sodium carbonate is used for removing temporary and permanent hardness of water.[15]

As sodium carbonate is water-soluble and magnesium carbonate and calcium carbonate are insoluble, so it is used to soften water by removing Mg²⁺ and Ca²⁺. These ions form insoluble solid precipitates upon treatment with carbonate ions:

${\displaystyle {\ce {Ca^2+ + CO3^2- -> CaCO3}}}$

${\displaystyle {\ce {Ca^2+(aq) + Na2CO3(aq) -> CaCO3(s) + 2Na+(aq)}}}$

Similarly, ${\displaystyle {\ce {Mg^2+(aq) + Na2CO3(aq) -> MgCO3(s) + 2Na+(aq)}}}$

The water is softened because it no longer contains dissolved calcium ions and magnesium ions.[15]

Sodium carbonate is a food additive (E500) used as an acidity regulator, anticaking agent, raising agent, and stabilizer. It is one of the components of kansui (かん水), a solution of alkaline salts used to give ramen noodles their characteristic flavor and texture. It is used in the production of snus to stabilize the pH of the final product. Sodium carbonate is used in the production of sherbet powder. The cooling and fizzing sensation results from the endothermic reaction between sodium carbonate and a weak acid, commonly citric acid, releasing carbon dioxide gas, which occurs when the sherbet is moistened by saliva. In China, it is used to replace lye-water in the crust of traditional Cantonese moon cakes, and in many other Chinese steamed buns and noodles. In cooking, it is sometimes used in place of sodium hydroxide for lyeing, especially with German pretzels and lye rolls. These dishes are treated with a solution of an alkaline substance to change the pH of the surface of the food and improve browning. Sodium carbonate is corrosive to aluminum cookware, utensils and foil. [17]

Sodium carbonate is also used as a relatively strong base in various fields. As a common alkali, it is preferred in many chemical processes because it is cheaper than NaOH and far safer to handle. Its mildness especially recommends its use in domestic applications.

For example, it is used as a pH regulator to maintain stable alkaline conditions necessary for the action of the majority of photographic film developing agents. It is also a common additive in swimming pools and aquarium water to maintain a desired pH and carbonate hardness (KH). In dyeing with fiber-reactive dyes, sodium carbonate (often under a name such as soda ash fixative or soda ash activator) is used to ensure proper chemical bonding of the dye with cellulose (plant) fibers, typically before dyeing (for tie dyes), mixed with the dye (for dye painting), or after dyeing (for immersion dyeing). It is also used in the froth flotation process to maintain a favourable pH as a float conditioner besides CaO and other mildly basic compounds.

Sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO₃) or baking soda, also a component in fire extinguishers, is often generated from sodium carbonate. Although NaHCO₃ is itself an intermediate product of the Solvay process, the heating needed to remove the ammonia that contaminates it decomposes some NaHCO₃, making it more economic to react finished Na₂CO₃ with CO₂:

Na₂CO₃ + CO₂ + H₂O → 2NaHCO₃

In a related reaction, sodium carbonate is used to make sodium bisulfite (NaHSO₃), which is used for the "sulfite" method of separating lignin from cellulose. This reaction is exploited for removing sulfur dioxide from flue gases in power stations:

Na₂CO₃ + SO₂ + H₂O → NaHCO₃ + NaHSO₃

This application has become more common, especially where stations have to meet stringent emission controls.

Sodium carbonate is used by the cotton industry to neutralize the sulfuric acid needed for acid delinting of fuzzy cottonseed.

Sodium carbonate is used by the brick industry as a wetting agent to reduce the amount of water needed to extrude the clay. In casting, it is referred to as "bonding agent" and is used to allow wet alginate to adhere to gelled alginate. Sodium carbonate is used in toothpastes, where it acts as a foaming agent and an abrasive, and to temporarily increase mouth pH.

Sodium carbonate is also used in the processing and tanning of animal hides.

Trona, trisodium hydrogendicarbonate dihydrate (Na₃HCO₃CO₃·2H₂O), is mined in several areas of the US and provides nearly all the domestic consumption of sodium carbonate. Large natural deposits found in 1938, such as the one near Green River, Wyoming, have made mining more economical than industrial production in North America. There are important reserves of trona in Turkey; two million tons of soda ash have been extracted from the reserves near Ankara. It is also mined from some alkaline lakes such as Lake Magadi in Kenya by dredging. Hot saline springs continuously replenish salt in the lake so that, provided the rate of dredging is no greater than the replenishment rate, the source is fully sustainable.

Several "halophyte" (salt-tolerant) plant species and seaweed species can be processed to yield an impure form of sodium carbonate, and these sources predominated in Europe and elsewhere until the early 19th century. The land plants (typically glassworts or saltworts) or the seaweed (typically Fucus species) were harvested, dried, and burned. The ashes were then "lixiviated" (washed with water) to form an alkali solution. This solution was boiled dry to create the final product, which was termed "soda ash"; this very old name refers derives from the Arabic word soda, in turn applied to salsola soda, one of the many species of seashore plants harvested for production. "Barilla" is a commercial term applied to an impure form of potash obtained from coastal plants or kelp.[22]

The sodium carbonate concentration in soda ash varied very widely, from 2–3 percent for the seaweed-derived form ("kelp"), to 30 percent for the best barilla produced from saltwort plants in Spain. Plant and seaweed sources for soda ash, and also for the related alkali "potash", became increasingly inadequate by the end of the 18th century, and the search for commercially viable routes to synthesizing soda ash from salt and other chemicals intensified.[23]

In 1792, the French chemist Nicolas Leblanc patented a process for producing sodium carbonate from salt, sulfuric acid, limestone, and coal. In the first step, sodium chloride is treated with sulfuric acid in the Mannheim process. This reaction produces sodium sulfate (salt cake) and hydrogen chloride:

2NaCl + H₂SO₄ → Na₂SO₄ + 2HCl

The salt cake and crushed limestone (calcium carbonate) was reduced by heating with coal.[16] This conversion entails two parts. First is the carbothermic reaction whereby the coal, a source of carbon, reduces the sulfate to sulfide:

Na₂SO₄ + 2C → Na₂S + 2CO₂

The second stage is the reaction to produce sodium carbonate and calcium sulfide:

Na₂S + CaCO₃ → Na₂CO₃ + CaS

This mixture is called black ash. The soda ash is extracted from the black ash with water. Evaporation of this extract yields solid sodium carbonate. This extraction process was termed lixiviation.

The hydrochloric acid produced by the Leblanc process was a major source of air pollution, and the calcium sulfide byproduct also presented waste disposal issues. However, it remained the major production method for sodium carbonate until the late 1880s.[23][24]

In 1861, the Belgian industrial chemist Ernest Solvay developed a method to make sodium carbonate by first reacting sodium chloride, ammonia, water, and carbon dioxide to generate sodium bicarbonate and ammonium chloride:[16]

NaCl + NH₃ + CO₂ + H₂O → NaHCO₃ + NH₄Cl

The resulting sodium bicarbonate was then converted to sodium carbonate by heating it, releasing water and carbon dioxide:

2NaHCO₃ → Na₂CO₃ + H₂O + CO₂

Meanwhile, the ammonia was regenerated from the ammonium chloride byproduct by treating it with the lime (calcium oxide) left over from carbon dioxide generation:

2NH₄Cl + CaO → 2NH₃ + CaCl₂ + H₂O

The Solvay process recycles its ammonia. It consumes only brine and limestone, and calcium chloride is its only waste product. The process is substantially more economical than the Leblanc process, which generates two waste products, calcium sulfide and hydrogen chloride. The Solvay process quickly came to dominate sodium carbonate production worldwide. By 1900, 90% of sodium carbonate was produced by the Solvay process, and the last Leblanc process plant closed in the early 1920s.[16]

The second step of the Solvay process, heating sodium bicarbonate, is used on a small scale by home cooks and in restaurants to make sodium carbonate for culinary purposes (including pretzels and alkali noodles). The method is appealing to such users because sodium bicarbonate is widely sold as baking soda, and the temperatures required (250 °F (121 °C) to 300 °F (149 °C)) to convert baking soda to sodium carbonate are readily achieved in conventional kitchen ovens.[25]

This process was developed by Chinese chemist Hou Debang in the 1930s. The earlier steam reforming byproduct carbon dioxide was pumped through a saturated solution of sodium chloride and ammonia to produce sodium bicarbonate by these reactions:

CH₄ + 2H₂O → CO₂ + 4H₂

3H₂ + N₂ → 2NH₃

NH₃ + CO₂ + H₂O → NH₄HCO₃

NH₄HCO₃ + NaCl → NH₄Cl + NaHCO₃

The sodium bicarbonate was collected as a precipitate due to its low solubility and then heated up to approximately 80 °C (176 °F) or 95 °C (203 °F) to yield pure sodium carbonate similar to last step of the Solvay process. More sodium chloride is added to the remaining solution of ammonium and sodium chlorides; also, more ammonia is pumped at 30-40 °C to this solution. The solution temperature is then lowered to below 10 °C. Solubility of ammonium chloride is higher than that of sodium chloride at 30 °C and lower at 10 °C. Due to this temperature-dependent solubility difference and the common-ion effect, ammonium chloride is precipitated in a sodium chloride solution.

The Chinese name of Hou's process, lianhe zhijian fa (联合制碱法), means "coupled manufacturing alkali method": Hou's process is coupled to the Haber process and offers better atom economy by eliminating the production of calcium chloride, since ammonia no longer needs to be regenerated. The byproduct ammonium chloride can be sold as a fertilizer.