Preparation of Sodium Carbonate

The preparation of sodium carbonate from impure natural soda, and from the ashes of soda plants, has been already described. Methods have also been suggested for transforming various sodium salts—sulphate, chloride, fluoride, cryolite, nitrate, and felspar—into the carbonate. Many of these are discussed in detail by R. von Wagner s Regesten der Soda/abrik (Leipzig, 1866) and by G. Lunge s A Theoretical and Practical Treatise on the Manufacture of Sulphuric Acid and Alkali (London, 1896). Much of what is said of the sodium salts applies also to the potassium salts, and conversely. 

The major reactions are complicated by a number of minor or secondary reactions, and by impurities in the raw materials. As a result the black ash may contain 1 to 2 per cent, of sodium silicate to If per cent, of sodium aluminate 1 per cent, of sodium ferrous sulphide small proportions of sodium cyanide and thiocyanate derived from the nitrogen of the coal a relatively small amount of ultramarine etc. Proposals to use barium carbonate, etc., in place of limestone in the black-ash process are indicated in connection with the preparation of sodium carbonate from sodium sulphide. 

Preparation of Sodium Carbonate. Put about 0.5 g of sodium bicarbonate onto the bottom of a porcelain crucible and roast it on a gas burner during 20-30 min. 

Preparation of nitrates of ammonia and sodium Preparation of sodium carbonate Preparation of hydrogen cyanide... 

Tests for anions are usually made in solutions that contain cations only of the alkali metals and thallium(I). This is achieved through preparation of sodium carbonate extracts by treating the test solutions with sodium carbonate and removing the resulting precipitate. 

Johann Carl Friedrich Meyer (Stettin 1733-20 February 1811), Court Apothecary in Stettin, besides his papers on colloidal silica (see p. 188), hydrofluoric acid (see p. 215), the non-convertibility of silica into alumina (see p. 568), and the preparation of sodium carbonate from common salt (see p. 562), investigated the solubility of lead in sulphuric acid and the action of acids on strontia, and analysed minerals. He prepared artificial Seltzer water. He found that Siberian native iron dissolves in dilute sulphuric acid to a green solution, which becomes blue with ammonium chloride. Proust later showed that native (Peruvian) and meteoric iron contain nickel. Meyer s supposed new metal, hydrosiderum, he showed himself was iron phosphide (seep. 194). 

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