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Concept
Sodium sulfate
Summary
Sodium sulfate (also known as sodium sulphate or sulfate of soda) is the inorganic compound with formula Na2SO4 as well as several related hydrates. All forms are white solids that are highly soluble in water. With an annual production of 6 million tonnes, the decahydrate is a major commodity chemical product. It is mainly used as a filler in the manufacture of powdered home laundry detergents and in the Kraft process of paper pulping for making highly alkaline sulfides.
Anhydrous sodium sulfate, known as the rare mineral thenardite, used as a drying agent in organic synthesis.
Heptahydrate sodium sulfate, a very rare form.
Decahydrate sodium sulfate, known as the mineral mirabilite, widely used by chemical industry. It is also known as Glauber's salt.
The decahydrate of sodium sulfate is known as Glauber's salt after the Dutch–German chemist and apothecary Johann Rudolf Glauber (1604–1670), who discovered it in Austrian spring water in 1625. He named it sal mirabilis (miraculous salt), because of its medicinal properties: the crystals were used as a general-purpose laxative, until more sophisticated alternatives came about in the 1900s.
In the 18th century, Glauber's salt began to be used as a raw material for the industrial production of soda ash (sodium carbonate), by reaction with potash (potassium carbonate). Demand for soda ash increased, and the supply of sodium sulfate had to increase in line. Therefore, in the 19th century, the large-scale Leblanc process, producing synthetic sodium sulfate as a key intermediate, became the principal method of soda-ash production.
Sodium sulfate is a typical electrostatically bonded ionic sulfate. The existence of free sulfate ions in solution is indicated by the easy formation of insoluble sulfates when these solutions are treated with Ba2+ or Pb2+ salts:
Na2SO4 + BaCl2 → 2 NaCl + BaSO4
Sodium sulfate is unreactive toward most oxidizing or reducing agents. At high temperatures, it can be converted to sodium sulfide by carbothermal reduction (aka thermo-chemical sulfate reduction (TSR), high temperature heating with charcoal, etc.
Official source
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