water glass: Quick Facts

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Also Known As	sodium silicate • soluble glass

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Sodium silicate

Figure 3: Basic building block of a silica glass network. Silicon ions bond to oxygen atoms, forming tetrahedral structures that are connected by a bridging oxygen atom. The tetrahedra revolve around the oxygen-silicon bond, while the angle at which the two tetrahedra are connected also varies.

Figure 2: The irregular arrangement of ions in a sodium silicate glass.

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