Applications
Sodium hydroxide solutions, also known as lye and caustic soda, are used in the manufacture of pulp and paper, textiles, drinking water, soaps and detergents, and as a drain cleaner. Worldwide production in 2004 was approximately 60 million tonnes. The principal method of manufacture is the chlor-alkali process.
Solutions containing the hydroxide ion are generated when a salt of a weak acid is dissolved in water. Sodium carbonate is used as an alkali, for example, by virtue of the hydrolysis reaction
- CO32– + H2O HCO3– + OH–; (pKa2 = 10.33 at 25 °C and zero ionic strength)
Although the base strength of sodium carbonate solutions is lower than a concentrated sodium hydroxide solution, it has the advantage of being a solid. It is also manufactured on a vast scale (42 million tonnes in 2005) by the Solvay process. An example of the use of sodium carbonate as an alkali is when washing soda (another name for sodium carbonate) acts on insoluble esters, such as triglycerides, commonly known as fats, to hydrolyze them and make them soluble.
Bauxite, a basic hydroxide of aluminium, is the principal ore from which the metal is manufactured. Similarly, goethite (α-FeO(OH)) and lepidocrocite (γ-FeO(OH)), basic hydroxides of iron, are among the principal ores used for the manufacture of metallic iron. Numerous other uses can be found in the articles on individual hydroxides.
Read more about this topic: Hydroxide