sodium sulphate anhydrous, which is widely used in chemicals ,medicines and detergents.

Sodium sulfate is the sodium salt of sulfuric acid. When anhydrous, it is a white crystalline solid of formula Na2SO4 known as the mineral thenardite; the decahydrate Na2SO4·10H2O has been known as Glauber's salt or, historically, sal mirabilis since the 17th century. Another solid is the heptahy-drate, which transforms to mirabilite when cooled. With an annual production of 6 million tonnes, it is a major commodity chemical product.

Sodium sulfate is mainly used for the manufacture of detergents and in the Kraft process of paper pulping. About two-thirds of the world's production is from mirabilite, the natural mineral form of the decahydrate, and the remainder from by-products of chemical processes such as hydrochloric acid production.

The hydrate 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 1625 in Austrian spring water. 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 supply of sodium sulfate had to increase in line. Therefore, in the nineteenth century, the large scale Leblanc process, producing synthetic sodium sulfate as a key intermediate, became the principal method of soda ash production.

Physical and chemical properties

Sodium sulfate is chemically very stable, being unreactive toward most oxidising or reducing agents at normal temperatures. At high temperatures, it can be converted to sodium sulfide by carbothermal reduction:

Na2SO4 + 2 C → Na2S + 2 CO2Acid-base

Sodium sulfate is a neutral salt, which forms aqueous solutions with pH of 7. The neutrality of such solutions reflects the fact that sulfate is derived, formally, from the strong acid sulfuric acid. Furthermore, the Na+ ion, with only a single positive charge, only weakly polarizes its water ligands. Sodium sulfate reacts with sulfuric acid to give the acid salt sodium bisulfate:

Na2SO4 + H2SO4 = 2 NaHSO4

The equilibrium constant for this process depends on concentration and temperature.

Solution and ion exchange

Sodium sulfate has unusual solubility characteristics in water. Its solubility in water rises more than tenfold between 0 °C to 32.384 °C, where it reaches a maximum of 497 g/L. At this point the solubility curve changes slope, and the solubility becomes almost independent of temperature. This tempera-

ture at 32.384 °C, corresponding to the release of crystal water and melting of the hydrated salt, serves as an accurate temperature reference for thermometer calibration.

Sodium sulfate is a typical ionic sulfate, containing Na+ ions and SO42− ions. The existence of sulfate 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 displays a moderate tendency to form double salts. The only alums formed with common trivalent metals are NaAl(SO4)2 (unstable above 39 °C) and NaCr(SO4)2, in contrast to potassium sulfate and ammonium sulfate which form many stable alums.Double salts with some other alkali metal sulfates are known, including Na2SO4·3K2SO4 which occurs naturally as the mineral glaserite. Formation of glaserite by reaction of sodium sulfate with potassium chloride has been used as the basis of a method for producing potassium sulfate, a fertiliser. Other double salts include 3Na2SO4·CaSO4, 3Na2SO4·MgSO4 (vanthoffite) and NaF·Na2SO4. Cited in the network

Packaging :25/50KG per bag