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Why is sodium carbonate used as a source of sodium oxide in glassmaking?

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Sodium carbonate (soda ash) is used in glassmaking primarily to serve as a flux.12

Pure silica (sand) is an excellent glass-forming material, but it has a very high melting point exceeding 1,700 °C. Attaining such high temperatures is extremely expensive and energy-intensive. By adding sodium carbonate to the mixture, manufacturers introduce sodium oxide, which acts as a fluxing agent to significantly reduce the melting point of the silica—often down to approximately 850 °C.132

While this reduction in melting temperature makes the glass much easier to work with and shape, it also makes the resulting material water-soluble. To ensure the final product is durable and insoluble, other stabilizing oxides, such as lime (calcium oxide), are added to the mixture. This combination of silica, soda, and lime creates the most common form of commercial glass, known as soda-lime glass.132