Sodium carbonate

Sodium carbonate is a soda ash, which is described below:

    Common name and scientific name: The common name of sodium carbonate is called soda ash, which is also known as soda or alkali ash in international trade, and its scientific name is sodium carbonate, and its chemical formula is Na₂CO₃178.
   Properties in line with the characteristics of soda ash: sodium carbonate is a white hygroscopic powder, tasteless and odourless, easily soluble in water, the aqueous solution is strongly alkaline, which is one of the reasons why it is known as ‘soda ash’, and its aqueous solution can make the colourless phenolphthalein solution turn red, it has a certain degree of corrosiveness, and it can carry out a neutralisation reaction with acid, generating the corresponding salt and releasing carbon dioxide. It can neutralise with acid to produce the corresponding salt and release carbon dioxide.
   Widely used: Sodium carbonate is an important inorganic chemical raw material, widely used in metallurgy, glass, chemistry, medicine, textile printing and dyeing industries. In the glass industry, it is the main raw material for the manufacture of glass; used as a co-solvent in the metallurgical industry; used for the synthesis of anandamide and other drugs in medicine; used in the chemical industry for the manufacture of other compounds; in daily life, but also can be used for life washing, acid neutralisation and food processing, etc., such as as a food bulking agent used in the production of steamed bread, bread and other food production process.
    Historical origin: Ancient people found that hard soap can be produced from seaweed ash, and later proved that the alkali in seaweed ash contains soda, i.e. sodium carbonate. 1793, the French chemist Leblanc first invented the method of synthetic soda ash. 1861, the Belgian chemist Solvay invented ammonia-alkali method to produce sodium carbonate, and the soda ash obtained by this method has high purity and good quality. In 1943, Chinese scientist Hou Deping improved Solvay’s method and invented Hou’s method of making soda ash.

The main differences between light soda ash and heavy soda ash are as follows:
Physical Properties

    Density: the density of light soda ash is usually 500-600kg/m³, while the density of heavy soda ash is usually 1000-1200kg/m³912.
    Particle morphology: light soda ash is mostly white powdery crystals with fine particles; heavy soda ash is white granular anhydrous material with relatively large particles712.
Production method

    Light soda ash: mainly produced by ammonia alkali method, with raw salt and limestone as raw materials, through chemical synthesis to obtain light soda ash, but also can be further produced by solid-phase hydration method to produce heavy soda ash 79.
   Heavy soda ash: mainly produced by natural alkali method, using natural alkali as raw material, applying evaporation method or carbonisation method to produce heavy soda ash 79.
Chemical Properties

The chemical properties of the two are basically the same, but their behaviour in some chemical reactions may be slightly different due to differences in physical properties. For example, when reacting with acid, the reaction rate of heavy soda ash may be relatively slower due to its larger particle size, but this difference is usually negligible in practical applications 79.
Performance characteristics

   Stability: Heavy soda ash has better stability and is not easy to be caked by moisture, while light soda ash is easy to absorb moisture in the air and caked during storage, affecting the use 7.
Flying: light soda ash particles are fine, easy to fly in the process of handling, use, resulting in dust pollution, but also lead to the loss of raw materials; heavy soda ash is not easy to fly, can reduce the loss of alkali powder, improve the working environment, reduce the hazards to the health of the operators and the corrosion of the production equipment.

Application fields

    Light Soda Ash: Because of its fast dissolving speed and fine particles, it is mainly used in detergent, papermaking, printing and dyeing, food and other industries, in which there are high requirements for the purity and dissolving speed of soda ash, and light soda ash can better meet the production requirements.
   Heavy Soda Ash: Because of its high density, large particle size, good stability and other advantages, it is widely used in glass manufacturing, metallurgy, ceramics and other industries, for example, in glass manufacturing, heavy soda ash helps to improve the quality and yield of glass and reduce defects in the production process.