How to make borax at home, is it easy to make

Borax is an original raw material in the boron industry. It is a translucent transparent body, similar in appearance to edible salt, but generally limited in use in the food industry. Borax is toxic to a certain extent, and excessive consumption can easily cause poisoning, leading to symptoms such as sensitive spots, diarrhea, and shock. Refined borax has certain practical value and can be used in cosmetics, detergents, and hairdressing industries. It also has certain medicinal value and can clear away heat and detoxify, reduce swelling and inflammation, etc. So can borax be made at home and how to do it?

Uses of Borax

Borax is added to food to have anti-corrosion, increase elasticity and expand the food. Borax is very harmful to human health. The human body can decompose and excrete a small amount of toxic substances by itself, but after borax enters the body, it is converted into boric acid by gastric acid. Boric acid accumulates in the human body. Although the amount taken each time is not much, it accumulates over time. Continuous intake will accumulate in the body, hindering the action of digestive enzymes, causing loss of appetite, indigestion, inhibiting the absorption of nutrients, and promoting fat decomposition, thus causing weight gain.

The acute poisoning symptoms are vomiting, diarrhea, erythema, circulatory system disorders, shock, coma, etc., the so-called boric acid syndrome. The boron in borax has an inhibitory effect on bacterial DNA synthesis, but it can also damage DNA in the human body. Boron is a limiting element for the human body. If the human body ingests too much boron, it will cause cumulative poisoning of multiple organs.

The toxic dose of borax for adults is 1 to 3 grams, the lethal dose for adults is 15 grams, and the lethal dose for infants is 2 to 3 grams. Therefore, my country's Food Hygiene Law and Food Additive Hygiene Management Measures explicitly prohibit the use of borax as a food additive. However, since borax can significantly improve the "quality" of foods that have high taste requirements, especially some meat products, and since borax has a weak preservative effect, it is often used in large quantities. It's okay if it's not a long-term contact, but if you are doing this kind of work, it's best to wear gloves.

Process

1. Pressurized alkali decomposition method: Mix the pretreated boron magnesium ore powder with sodium hydroxide solution, heat and pressurize to decompose to obtain sodium metaborate solution, and then carbonize to obtain borax.

2MgO.B2O3+2NaOH+H2O→2NaBO2+2Mg（OH）2

4 NaBO2+CO2→Na2B4O7+Na2CO3

2. Carbon-alkali method: Mix the pretreated boron-magnesium ore powder with sodium carbonate solution and heat it, then pass carbon dioxide to increase the pressure and react to obtain borax.

2 (2MgO.B2O3) + Na2CO3 + 2CO2 + xH2O → Na2B4O7 + 4MgO.3CO2. xH2O

3. Pure alkali solution method (well salt brine): Treat the well salt brine to obtain borax paste, and mix it with pure alkali and cook it to obtain borax.

CaB4O7+ Na2CO3→Na2B4O7+ CaCO3

4H3BO3+ Na2CO3→Na2B4O7+6H2O+CO2

4. Pure alkali alkali solution method (ulexite): Use pure alkali and baking soda to decompose the pretreated ulexite, add causticized starch to precipitate and crystallize to obtain borax.

2 (NaO.2CaO.5B2O3.16H2O) + Na2CO3 + NaHCO3 → 5Na2B4O7 + 4CaCO3 + CO2 + 34H2O