The Dissociation of Lithium Carbonate and Potassium Carbonate

JSGT 1931 V15 T360-T364

The study of the decomposition of sodium carbonate, an account of which has already been given by us, has been extended to the carbonates of the two other commoner alkaline metals-namely, lithium and potassium, of which only the latter is of substantial importance at the present time for glass making purposes. The apparatus employed in the previous investigation has been used again in this case, but with modification of one or two details. In the first place, the decomposition tube of platinum used in the study of sodium carbonate was found, on prolonged heating, to undergo crystallisation with some loss of stability, and when attempting to carry out a determination at a temperature between 1400° and 1450° it collapsed. We were therefore led on this occasion, after correspondence with Messrs. Johnson, Matthey & Co., Ltd., to try a tube made of an alloy of platinum containing 0·5% of gold. We have found, during the course of a number of experiments, involving the use of temperatures up to about 1400°, no evidence of crystallisation such as had been found with pure platinum.

J. T. Howarth & W. E. S. Turner