sodium silicate?

[lnstantkarma]

I need some for my rockets' exaust nozzels and I would rather not buy it online but I can if I have to. I've been looking for it(lowes menards, slot and wing,) and I asked my mom to keep an eye out for it too. She found this stuff at hobby lobby called silica gel. I read whatever I could on it and at first glance I don't think I can make it work, it won't dissolve in water like I expected. The only other thing I know is that it's formed from sulfuric acid and sodium silicate.

[WarezWally]

There are only two places I know of that sell it:

 

1. Pottery suppliers

2. Auto shops (used to fix radiators)

[jacob]

There are only two places I know of that sell it:

 

And me .

how much do you need? and are you looking for it in solution or as a powder?

[lnstantkarma]

I'll try an auto shop.

I need it in solution, what's the powder? just sodium silicate without water? and does anyone know exactly what silica gel is?

[jacob]

Hmm, I must be wrong, I thought I saw powdered sodium silicate somewhere but I must be thinking of Sodium Salicylate.

[TheNitrateFellow]

Sorry to ressucitate an old post here but I tought this could be useful to other people. For those who don't want to buy online, Sodium silicate is easily made at home by dissolving silicon dioxide (silica, pure white sand) in a near-boiling conc. solution of NaOH. Yout test the pH every few minutes, and add more SiO₂ if pH is too high, so you don't have NaOH in your finished product. Then you filter the solution to remove undissolved SiO₂, and you can boil it down to concentrations appropriate for pyro uses. If you use sand instead of pure silica, the sodium silicate will not be pure but it's not very important. Pay attention to the container you will be using for the reaction! Glass is mostly Silicon Dioxide, and a cheap Bomex beaker will not survive very long to hot NaOH, so you don't want to reuse the same glassware for several batches. Edited May 25, 2009 by TheNitrateFellow