Sodium Silicate Uses: In this video, we show the amazing Uses of Sodium Silicate / Water Glass in industrial to our daily life. It is also known as liquid glass and is used as a concrete sealer, a defloculent in ceramics, a coagulant, cardboard adhesive, soil stabilizer,, chimney sealer and in many other industries.

Getting To Know Water Glass

Water glass is nothing but sodium silicate that finds many a use in both art studios and manufacturing industries. It carries various benefits and the applications are surprisingly varied as well.

You must have heard of water glass that is often used in art studios for various ancillary tasks. Some artists may mention that they use this liquid as an easy deflocculant when making clay slips, while some may manipulate it to create an instant antique finish on their ceramic creations. Others may just be using it to seal a surface or bond different materials together.

Before you scratch your head over this unusual product and its varied applications, let me tell you that water glass or liquid glass is just a colloquial term for sodium silicate. It is actually sodium metasilicate (Na2SiO3) - sodium carbonate and silicon dioxide react when molten to form sodium silicate and carbon dioxide. It is available as an aqueous solution and in solid form as well.

The use of this simple compound is quite widespread and incorporates mold making and casting along with manufacturing industries like cements, refractories, textile and lumber processing, automobiles and even passive fire protection.

For instance, sodium silicate is commonly used to make sand molded castings as it works as a high strength binder and can glue the sand grains together very effectively. The sand cores become solid on exposure to carbondioxide and stay resilient too. Molten metal can be poured into them for foundry mold making applications.

The same liquid silicate can be used to seal concrete and plaster surfaces. Applying a thin continuous coat will reduce the inherent porosity of these materials and render them water repellant. The silicate film will be naturally transparent – but it can be made opaque by adding aluminum pigments. Alkali resistant pigments like titanium dioxide (white), lime-free iron oxide (red), ultramarine bluechrome oxide (green), grease-free carbon (black), ochre (yellow) and umbers or siennas (brown) are recommended. Fillers like clay are used for semi-opaque films.

Sodium silicate also works as a strong adhesive and is effective in bonding metals and other materials together. The inorganic bond will adhere together in a strong, tough and rigid manner.