A review of sodium silicate solutions: Structure, gelation, and syneresis

Adv Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Nov 2;322:103036. doi: 10.1016/j.cis.2023.103036. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTSodium silicate solutions, also known as waterglass, have been found to have remarkable utility in a variety of applications. The cumulative weight of evidence from 70 years of varied analysis indicates that silicate solutions consist of a wide range of species, from monomers through oligomers, up to colloids. Moreover, the structure and distribution of these species are greatly dependent upon many parameters, such as solute concentrations, silica to alkali ratio, pH, and temperature. The most interesting and characteristic property of silicate solutions is their ability to form silica gels. Overall, despite extensive research using different spectroscopic and scattering techniques, many questions related to sodium silicate's dynamic structure, stability, polymerization, and gelation remain difficult to answer. The multitude of simultaneous reactions which restructure the silicate species at the atomic scale in response to variation in solution and environmental parameters, makes it difficult to investigate the individual events using only experimental data. Molecular modelling provides an alternative way to study the unknown areas in the aqueous silicate and silica gel systems, generating key insights into the chemical reactions at microscopic length scales. However, sufficient sampling remains a challenge for the practical use of molecular simulation for these sys...
Source: Advances in Colloid and Interface Science - Category: Chemistry Authors: Source Type: research