Sciencemadness Discussion Board

20 mules team borax

nelsonB - 1-4-2018 at 14:46

hi
i was wondering if anyone here know how pure is the borax from the brand 20 Mule Team. could there be impurety of sodium carbonate and such ?

happyfooddance - 1-4-2018 at 14:58

I highly doubt that there are any carbonates present. I use it to make boric acid, the yields are quantitative, and there is no observable evolution of carbon dioxide upon addition of HCl.

UC235 - 1-4-2018 at 15:50

It might have some carbonate. There's also some insoluble garbage in my experience. It's pretty easy to hot filter the solution and make nice crystals. They're quite hard so I don't recommend glass. The bottom of a milk jug makes for easy crystal recovery.

happyfooddance - 1-4-2018 at 16:03

Yeah, always hot filter. The insoluble crap might be cardboard from the inside of the box it gets shipped in. I live only about 150 miles from where it is mined, so maybe that's why I don't get much "insoluble junk".