sodium sulfite

noun

Chemistry.

1. a white, crystalline, water-soluble solid, Na 2 SO 3 , used chiefly as a food preservative, as a bleaching agent, and as a developer in photography.

Example Sentences

To make the humanmade version, the team first softened thin strips of oak by boiling them with lye and sodium sulfite.

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Then the gases are routed into a device called a scrubber, where they bubble through a caustic-soda solution; chemical reaction between the SO2 and the soda produces two salts, sodium sulfite and sodium sulfate, that are pumped from the scrubber in waste liquids into tanks.

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The flask is now warmed to about 20'0 on a steam bath, until the solid sodium sulfite, which has separated while cooling, redissolves.

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Notes If the sodium sulfite solution contains an excess of alkali, a black tar tends to form when the solution is warmed, and very little phenylhydrazine is obtained.

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Most published directions for the preparation of phenylhydrazine specify the use of zinc dust and acetic acid following the reduction with sodium sulfite.

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