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Sodium carbonate is also used as a relatively strong base in various settings. Soda lime glass has been the most common form of glass for centuries. This type of glass is known as soda lime glass: "soda" for the sodium carbonate and "lime" for the calcium carbonate. This "soda glass" is mildly water-soluble, so some calcium carbonate is added to the melt mixture to make the glass produced insoluble. Sodium carbonate acts as a flux for silica, lowering the melting point of the mixture to something achievable without special materials. The manufacture of glass is one of the most important uses of sodium carbonate. It is synthetically produced in large quantities from salt -sodium chloride- and limestone by a method known as the Solvay process. Because the ashes of these sodium-rich plants were noticeably different from ashes of timber -used to create potash-, they became known as "soda ash". Historically it was extracted from the ashes of plants growing in sodium-rich soils, such as vegetation from the Middle East, kelp from Scotland and seaweed from Spain.
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Sodium carbonate is well known domestically for its everyday use as a water softener. It has a strongly alkaline taste, and forms a moderately basic solution in water. Pure sodium carbonate is a white, odorless powder that is hygroscopic -absorbs moisture from the air. It most commonly occurs as a crystalline decahydrate, which readily effloresces to form a white powder, the monohydrate. If you have any questions regarding a certain product or products please contact the manufacturer(s) directly.Sodium carbonate: Sodium carbonate, Na2CO3, -also known as washing soda, soda ash and soda crystals, and in the monohydrate form as crystal carbonate- is the water-soluble sodium salt of carbonic acid. There will often be a delay between the time when a new product becomes available and the time when its nutritional information becomes available on our website. When precise nutritional information is important, our data is not a substitute for reading the label on the products you purchase or for contacting the manufacturer. In addition, the product images displayed on our site are for reference only and may not reflect the most current packaging. As a result, we cannot guarantee that the information on our website is 100% accurate and current. We do our best to record the information as it appears and keep nutritional content information current, but there are thousands of products in our store, manufacturers frequently change formulations, and we may not notice when a manufacturer changes the nutritional claims on a product's label. We do not investigate to determine if the label information is accurate. We have made every effort to be as accurate as possible however we do suggest that you continue to read labels as ingredients are subject to change and we cannot be responsible for individual reactions to any products. obtains nutritional information from claims made by the products' manufacturers on labels.
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