VIZAG CHEMICAL Sodium oxide is a chemical compound with the formula Na2O. It is used in ceramics and glasses, though not in a raw form. It is the base anhydride of sodium hydroxide, so when water is added to sodium oxide NaOH is produced.
The alkali metal oxides M2O (M = Li, Na, K, Rb) crystallise in the antifluorite structure. In this motif the positions of the anions and cations are reversed relative to their positions in CaF2, with sodium ions tetrahedrally coordinated to 4 oxide ions and oxide cubically coordinated to 8 sodium ions.

Applications

Glass making

Sodium oxide is a significant component of glasses and windows although it is added in the form of "soda" (sodium carbonate). Sodium oxide does not explicitly exist in glasses, since glasses are complex cross-linked polymers. Typically, manufactured glass contains around 15% sodium oxide, 70% silica (silicon dioxide) and 9% lime (calcium oxide). The sodium carbonate "soda" serves as a flux to lower the temperature at which the silica melts. Soda glass has a much lower melting temperature than pure silica, and has slightly higher elasticity. These changes arise because the silicon dioxide and soda react to form sodium silicates of the general formula.