Borosilicate glass applications

Four column systems are available from Amersham Pharmacia Biotech that can be used to pack SEC media for various applications at the laboratory scale. These include C, XK, SR, and HR column systems. All of the laboratory-scale columns are constructed with borosilicate glass tubes. Columns for larger scale process applications include INdEX, BPG, EineLINE, BPSS, and Stack columns. The larger scale columns are constructed to meet stringent validation requirements for the production of biopharmaceuticals. Each of the column types are described. 

Many metal borates find important industrial applications (p. 140) and annual world production exceeds 2.9 million tonnes Turkey 1.2, USA 1.1, Argentina 0.26, the former Soviet Union 0.18, Chile 0.13Mt. Main uses are in glass-fibre and cellular insulation, the manufacture of borosilicate glasses and enamels, and as fire retardants. Sodium perborate (for detergents) is manufactured on a 550 000 tonne pa scale. 

Glass is composed mainly of silica, Si02, with various oxides added to change the properties. The property differences are substantial, and different amounts of added oxide compounds produce glasses with very different applications derived from these properties. Often the added material is B203 and the products are called borosilicate glasses. From standard... 

Waste-Form Stability. If they occur at all, solid state transformations in dry glass and UO2 matrices will be too slow under the temperature conditions of service to be observable in the laboratory at the same temperature. Here we need to extrapolate from high temperature laboratory conditions to low temperature service conditions. It will be desirable to develop an intimate knowledge of the processes of phase separation and devitrification of sodium borosilicate glasses at temperatures below the softening point by meticulous application of electron microscopic. X-ray crystallographic and other techniques. The glasses will contain inactive elements representative of the fission product... 

Disodium Tetraborate. In the United States, anhydrous borax finds most application in the glass industry for enamels, borosilicate glass, and fiber glass insulation. It is also used as an antifreeze additive and as an algicide in industrial water. 

Ulexite, NaCaB 09 8H20, and probertite, NaCaB509 5H20, have found application in the production of insulation fiber glass and borosilicate glass as well as in the manufacture of other borates. 

In the past ten years the number of chemistry-related research problems in the nuclear industry has increased dramatically. Many of these are related to surface or interfacial chemistry. Some applications are reviewed in the areas of waste management, activity transport in coolants, fuel fabrication, component development, reactor safety studies, and fuel reprocessing. Three recent studies in surface analysis are discussed in further detail in this paper. The first concerns the initial corrosion mechanisms of borosilicate glass used in high level waste encapsulation. The second deals with the effects of residual chloride contamination on nuclear reactor contaminants. Finally, some surface studies of the high temperature oxidation of Alloys 600 and 800 are outlined such characterizations are part of the effort to develop more protective surface films for nuclear reactor applications. ... 

Glassware that has bends and/or has been fused to other pieces of glass will be either common laboratory borosilicate glass or fused silica. Any soft glass made into laboratory apparatus is for special application or, more likely is very old (and ought to be in a museum). 

Pleated These cartridge filters are typically used in higher-purity applications, such as pharmaceutical and microelectronics. The filters can have a multi-layered construction or be single layer. Typical materials of construction include polypropylene, polyethersulfone, and borosilicate glass fiber. 

Also gaining acceptance as alternative routes for immobilizing metals are processes such as soil vitrification, and the addition of cement-like (pozzolonic) agents whereby undesirable soil components are entrapped in a vitrified matrix. Vitrification of radioactive waste materials is currently being used as well. Examples of vitrifying media include borosilicate glasses and iron phosphates. Whether a specific vitrification process is chemical or physical in nature is not always clear. Table 10.2 lists the main selection criteria for this application. 

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