Sciencemadness Discussion Board

What can I make from sodium metasilicate?

vano - 9-3-2021 at 07:42

Hi. Today i bought sodium metasilicate. I think I wasted my money and it was better to buy lithium hydroxide instead. I made the decision very quickly. I wanted to make colored salts, but it turned out that I could not make anything other than silicon dioxide and other white silicon compounds. Do you have any idea what I can make?

vano - 9-3-2021 at 09:50

Na2SiO3 •9H2O

Fery - 9-3-2021 at 10:15

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_garden

vano - 9-3-2021 at 10:32

Quote: Originally posted by Fery  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_garden

Thanks

DraconicAcid - 9-3-2021 at 10:32

Quote: Originally posted by Fery  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_garden

This.

Also you can use it to make gels to grow crystals in- you get very slow diffusion of one reactant through the gel, so crystals of very insoluble things can be made larger than usual.

Bedlasky - 9-3-2021 at 10:52

You can make transition metal silicates, they are coloured.

vano - 9-3-2021 at 10:56

Quote: Originally posted by Bedlasky  
You can make transition metal silicates, they are coloured.


Yes, but as a Wikipedia when metasilicate dissolve in water hydroxide and SiO2 is produced. I think the product will be contaminated with hydroxide.

Screenshot_20210309-230334.jpeg - 527kB

[Edited on 9-3-2021 by vano]

Maurice-VD-3 - 10-3-2021 at 08:48

You could drop tiny crystals of CuSO4, NiCl2, FeSO4, etc. and wait without touching the vessel. As soon as the crystals gets dissolved, it wil react and form a colored precipitate of copper, nickel or iron silicate. And these substances are lighter than the silicate solution. As a consequence, they will form a column of metallic silicate that is steadily growing across the solution. It looks as if it was a plant growing in a garden. It is surprising. But these columns are fragile. The smallest shock wil destroy them.

vano - 10-3-2021 at 09:05

Quote: Originally posted by Maurice-VD-3  
You could drop tiny crystals of CuSO4, NiCl2, FeSO4, etc. and wait without touching the vessel. As soon as the crystals gets dissolved, it wil react and form a colored precipitate of copper, nickel or iron silicate. And these substances are lighter than the silicate solution. As a consequence, they will form a column of metallic silicate that is steadily growing across the solution. It looks as if it was a plant growing in a garden. It is surprising. But these columns are fragile. The smallest shock wil destroy them.

Thanks

Bedlasky - 10-3-2021 at 09:33

Quote: Originally posted by vano  
Quote: Originally posted by Bedlasky  
You can make transition metal silicates, they are coloured.


Yes, but as a Wikipedia when metasilicate dissolve in water hydroxide and SiO2 is produced. I think the product will be contaminated with hydroxide.



[Edited on 9-3-2021 by vano]


Water glass is essentialy aqueous solution of sodium silicate and it's perfectly stable. Silicates are less soluble than hydroxides, so silicate precipitate first.

vano - 10-3-2021 at 09:52

I wonder here why it is written so. Now I know, I dissolved a few grams, although it looked like a solution of hydroxide(I put a few drops on my hand), but the dioxide did not precipitated. Unfortunately I do not have metal salts here to make colored compounds.

DraconicAcid - 10-3-2021 at 12:08

Quote: Originally posted by Maurice-VD-3  
You could drop tiny crystals of CuSO4, NiCl2, FeSO4, etc. and wait without touching the vessel. As soon as the crystals gets dissolved, it wil react and form a colored precipitate of copper, nickel or iron silicate. And these substances are lighter than the silicate solution. As a consequence, they will form a column of metallic silicate that is steadily growing across the solution. It looks as if it was a plant growing in a garden. It is surprising. But these columns are fragile. The smallest shock wil destroy them.


Actually, it is not because the precipitate is lighter than the solution. The crystal rapidly gets coated with a skin of the metal silicate, with is somewhat porous. Water seeps in through the skin, dissolving more of the crystal to give a concentrated solution of the metal salt. Osmosis brings in more water, and the skin of silicate breaks. The solution is then exposed directly to the silicate solution, and more skin forms. This repeats until the tree-like growth is formed.

S.C. Wack - 10-3-2021 at 18:48

Silica gel and florisil. Adsorb something colored on them; now they have color.

draculic acid69 - 10-3-2021 at 20:51

I'd use it as waterglass