Author(s)

Hans Roggendorf^*, Matthias Fischer, Robert Roth, Reinhold Godehardt

Institut für Physik, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany.

Industrially produced sodium water glasses were dried in climates with controlled temperature and humidity to transparent amorphous water containing sodium silicate materials. The water glasses had molar SiO₂:Na₂O ratios of 2.2, 3.3 and 3.9 and were dried up to 84 days at temperatures between 40°C and 95°C and water vapour pressures between 5 and 40 kPa. The materials approached final water concentrations which are equilibrium values and are controlled by the water vapour pressure of the atmosphere and the microstructure of the solids. The microstructure of the dried water glasses was characterized by atomic force microscopy. It has a nanosized substructure built up by the silicate colloids of the educts but deformed by capillary forces. In the final drying equilibrium, the water vapour pressure of the atmosphere in the drying cabinet is equal to the reduced vapour pressure of the capillary system built up by the silicate colloids. Their size scale can be explained by the deformation of colloidal aggregates due to capillary forces.

Concentrated Sodium Silicate Sol, Silica Colloids, Drying, Atomic Force Microscopy, Capillarity

Roggendorf, H. , Fischer, M. , Roth, R. and Godehardt, R. (2015) Influence of Temperature and Water Vapour Pressure on Drying Kinetics and Colloidal Microstructure of Dried Sodium Water Glass. Advances in Chemical Engineering and Science, 5, 72-82. doi: 10.4236/aces.2015.51008.