This article introduces you to the use of potassium carbonate in glassmaking.Glass is one of the most widely used materials in the world. It is found in everyday objects such as bottles and lamps as well as the windows of our homes and buildings.But what exactly is glass? Literally the sand under our feet. If heated enough, to about 1723 ° C, the sand can melt and become a liquid. However, this does not happen easily, you need lightning to do this. To reduce the melting temperature of sand to the extent that it can be obtained in a kiln and is more efficient as a liquid, it is mixed with a substance called flux.The most common flux is plant ash, which contains sodium carbonate (soda ash) or tree ash, which contains potassium carbonate (potash), and these are mixed with substances such as gypsum (calcium carbonate).Chemically, the physical properties of glass result from a rapid cooling step, which causes the atoms that make up the quartz sand, silicon (Si) and oxygen (O) pebbles to solidify. Chemically, glass It is an irregular network of silicon dioxide molecules intertwined in what we call a silicate matrix.One of the first major innovations in glassmaking occurred in Roman times, when a glassmaker exploded through a rod into molten glass, creating bubbles. This method, called blowing glass, opened the glassware in the art of making glass and changed glassmaking forever. Roman blown glassware has become a large industry and contains many examples of beautiful and exotic objects.
Glass can exist naturally or be man-made. Potassium carbonate and sodium carbonate have been used in the manufacture of glass since the dawn of history and in the manufacture of soap for about 500 years.Sodium carbonate was obtained mainly by washing seagrass ash and potassium carbonate was obtained from terrestrial plant ash.Increasing demand for glass, soap, textiles, and gunpowder in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries led to deforestation from which producers produced potassium carbonate. In 1608, the first immigrants to Virginia established a “glass house,” and the first shipments to Britain included potassium carbonate.Potash production became a major industry in North America and the United Kingdom. Potassium carbonate production has always been a by-product, following the need to clear land for agriculture.In the twentieth century, industrial glassmaking became fully automated, and many new types of glass and glassmaking techniques were introduced. Crystal glass has been replaced by non-lead types, and Pyrex glass, for example, can withstand the firing temperature. Glass technology is currently expanding and glass is still one of the most important materials in the fields of engineering, design and art.Thousands of different chemical compounds can be converted to glass. Different formulations affect the mechanical, electrical, chemical, optical and thermal properties of the produced glass. There is no single chemical compound that characterizes all glass.Ordinary glass contains formers, fluxes and stabilizers.Soda (sodium carbonate) and potash (potassium carbonate) are both alkaline and common fluxes. Potassium carbonate glass is slightly denser than soda glass. Fluxes reduce the temperature at which they melt this is a Applications of Potassium carbonate.
Stabilizers make glass durable and waterproof. Calcium carbonate, often called calcined limestone, is a stabilizer. Without stabilizers, water and moisture attack the glass and dissolve it.Lead glass (commonly known as lead crystal) is used to make a wide variety of decorative glass objects. It is made using lead oxide instead of limestone and potassium carbonate (potash) instead of sodium carbonate (soda ash).In Central Europe, vast forests used to supply large amounts of tree ash, and this type of ash was rich in potassium carbonate, another type of flux that allows a glass of sand to be greatly reduced at melting point. This new type of glass was called potash glass and was also commonly called forest glass. Not only because it is often green, but also because glass foundries are mostly located in Bohemian forests.Lead crystal glass has different physical properties than potassium carbonate or sodium carbonate glass, which makes it clearer and easier to cut with patterns.Approximately 90% of the world’s glass production is soda lime glass.