Uses of alkali

Alkali is a liquid chemical widely used in industry. Alkali is actually good for the human body. It mainly facilitates our lives, but it also often causes many problems, including being harmful to the human body. Alkali also has many uses, but many people don't know its specific uses. So what are the uses of alkali?

Alkali (scientific name sodium hydroxide) is a soluble strong alkali. Pure alkali (scientific name sodium carbonate) is actually a salt. Because it undergoes hydrolysis in water, the solution becomes alkaline. Since it has some similar properties to alkali, it is listed alongside alkali and is called "two alkalis" in industry.

Both alkali and pure alkali are easily soluble in water, are strongly alkaline, and can provide Na+ ions. These properties make them widely used in soap making, textiles, printing and dyeing, bleaching, papermaking, refined petroleum, metallurgy and other chemical industries.

Ordinary soap is the sodium salt of higher fatty acids, which is generally made by saponifying oils and fats with a slightly excessive amount of alkali.

If fatty acids are used directly as raw materials, pure alkali can also be used to replace alkali to make soap.

In the metallurgical industry, the effective components in the ore are often converted into soluble sodium salts in order to remove the insoluble impurities. Therefore, pure alkali (which is also a flux) is often added, and sometimes alkali is also used. For example, in the smelting process of aluminum, the preparation of cryolite and the treatment of bauxite both use pure alkali and alkali. For example, when smelting tungsten, the concentrate and pure alkali are first roasted into soluble sodium tungstate, and then the powdered tungsten is obtained through acid precipitation, dehydration, reduction and other processes.

In the chemical industry, alkali is used to make metallic sodium and electrolyze water. Alkali or pure alkali is used in the production of many inorganic salts, especially in the preparation of some sodium salts (such as borax, sodium silicate, sodium phosphate, sodium dichromate, sodium sulfite, etc.). Alkali or pure alkali is also used in the synthesis of dyes, drugs and organic intermediates.

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