Borax Chemical Structure
Sep 19, 2021
What is borax?
Borax, commonly known as sodium tetraborate decahydrate has the chemical formula Na2B4O7, 10H2O or Na2[B4O5(OH)4], 8H2O. It is widely used in making optical, hard glass, antiseptic, and enamels. It is obtained by boiling mineral colemanite with sodium carbonate solution.
Structure of Borax
The above picture shows that the structure of the borax anion or [B4O5(OH)4]-2contains two tetrahedral BO4 units and two planners BO3 units. Each BO4 shares two oxygens with two planners BO3 and one oxygen with second BO4 units, The fourth oxygen is connected to the boron of the BO4 unit and hydrogen. The planner boron is sp2 hybridized and tetrahedral born is sp3 hybridized in borax structure.
Originally published at https://chemistrybloging.blogspot.com.
