TCC’s borax, also known as sodium, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, is an important boron compound, a mineral, and the salt of boric acid. It is usually a white powder consisting of soft colorless crystals that dissolve easily in water.
Borax has a wide variety of uses. It is a component of many detergents, cosmetics, and enamel glazes. It is also used to make buffer solutions in biochemistry, as a fire retardant, as an anti-fungal compound for fiberglass, as a flux in metallurgy, neutron-capture shields for radioactive sources, texturing agent in cooking, and as a precursor for other boron compounds.
Borax occurs naturally in evaporate deposits produced by the repeated evaporation of seasonal lakes. Borax can also be produced synthetically from other boron compounds. Naturally occurring borax is refined by the process of re-crystallization.
TCC’s Borax is available for shipping throughout the continental United States with one (1) week lead time. Please call (401) 360-2800 for details. Borax is shipped in bulk, 2,000lb. supersacks, 50lb. bags palletized w/shrinkwrap.
TCC’s borax, also known as sodium, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, is an important boron compound, a mineral, and the salt of boric acid. It is usually a white powder consisting of soft colorless crystals that dissolve easily in water.
The term borax is used for a number of closely related minerals or chemical compounds which vary in their crystal water content, but usually “borax” refers to the decahydrate. Commercially sold borax is usually partially dehydrated.
Borax is used as a food additive in some countries but is banned in the United States. As a consequence, certain foods, such as caviar produced for sale in the US contain higher levels of salt to assist in preservation. In Indonesia borax is a common, but forbidden additive to such foods as noodles, bakso (meatballs), and steamed rice. The country’s Directorate of Consumer Protection warns of the risk of liver cancer with high consumption over a period of 5 to 10 years.
Borax occurs naturally in evaporated deposits produced by the repeated evaporation of seasonal lakes. The most commercially important deposits are found in Turkey; Boron, California; and Searles Lake, California. Also, the, Atacama desert in Chile, newly-discovered deposits in Bolivia, and in Tibet and Romania. Borax can also be produced synthetically from other boron compounds. Naturally occurring borax is refined by process of re-crystallization.
Borax, sodium tetraborate decahydrate, is not acutely toxic. It’s LD50 (median lethal dose) score is tested at 2.66 g/kg in rats. A significant dose of the chemical is needed to cause severe symptoms or death. The lethal dose is not necessarily the same for humans.
Sufficient exposure to Borax dust can cause respiratory and skin irritation. Ingestion may cause gastrointestinal distress including nausea, persistent vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Effects on the vascular system and brain include headaches and lethargy, but are less frequent.
The term borax is often used for a number of closely related minerals or chemical compounds that differ in their crystal water content:
Borax is generally described as Na2B4O7·10H2O. However, it is better formulated as Na2[B4O5(OH)4]·8H2O, since borax contains the [B4O5(OH)4]2− ion. In this structure, there are two four-coordinate boron atoms (two BO4 tetrahedra) and two three-coordinate boron atoms (two BO3 triangles).
Borax is also easily converted to boric acid and other borates, which have many applications. The “decahytrate” is sufficiently stable to find use as a primary standard for acid base titrimetry.
Borax has a wide variety of uses. It is most commonly known for its use in laundry and cleaning products such as “20 Mule Team Borax” and “Boraxo” powder and soap. Sodium borate is also used in biochemical and chemical laboratories to make buffers, e.g. for jell electrophoresis of DNA, such as TBE or the newer SB buffer or BBS (borate buffered saline) in coating procedures. Borate buffers are also used as preferential equilibration solution in DMP-based cross-linking reactions.
Borax is a source of borate that has been used to take advantage of the co-complexing ability of borate with other agents in water to form complex ions with various substances. Borates as a suitable polymer bed are used in medicine to diagnose hyperglycemia in diabetes mellitus. Borate and a proprietary synthetic amino acid, Deselex (from Henkel) have been used to complex water “hardness” cations to make a non-precipitating water “software”.
A mixture of borax ammonium chloride is used as a flux when welding iron and steel. Borax is replacing mercury as the preferred method for extracting gold in small-scale mining facilities. The method is called the borax method and is used in the Philippines.
Borax is also used to make putty. A rubbery polymer sometimes called flubber, gluep or glurch can be made by cross-linking polyvinyl acetate with a borax. Making flubber from polyvinyl acetate-based glues, such as Elmer’s Glue, and borax is a common elementary education experiment.
Other uses for Borax:
"*" indicates required fields
All rights Reserved. ©2024
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
